Adoption of Internet Banking in Greece, a Consumers’ Perspective

Pregkler KarolosStudent number: 317013kp

Master Thesis Economics and Informatics

Erasmus University Rotterdam

Supervisors: Drs R. H. R. M. AernoudtsErasmus University Rotterdam

Drs R. van der Wal RA

Erasmus University Rotterdam

Abstract

This thesis examines adoption of internet banking by Greek consumers. The adoption rate of internet banking in Greece is significantly lower when compared to other European countries. After a review of existing literature on the adoption of information systems, the choice was made to use the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM). TAM is extended upon to incorporate a cultural factor, while it can play an important role and shapes consumers’ perceptions towards a technology thus affecting the intention to use and adopt a certain technology. The research instrument used is the questionnaire. In essence two different studies were conducted; the first in physical branches of three different banks and the second online. The results of the study confirm the ability of the extended TAM model to examine and analyze the adoption of internet banking by Greek consumers. Besides the two core constructs of TAM, perceived web security proves to be a significant determinant of the intention to use internet banking. Computer self-efficacy had a significant effect in the second study where as uncertainty avoidance was found to have a negative effect in the first study. Finally, the results provide directions for banks to improve their marketing strategies aiming for higher use of internet banking and in turn creating and realizing greater economic value.

Keywords: Technology acceptance model (TAM), Greece, internet banking, e-banking, culture, uncertainty avoidance.

2

1. INTRODUCTION 3

1.1 MOTIVATION 3

2. OVERVIEW OF E-BANKING 3

2.1 HOME BANKING 32.2 BANKING ON THE INTERNET 32.3 TRANSACTIONS OVER THE INTERNET 32.4 ADVANTAGES OF ELECTRONIC BANKING FROM BANKS’ PERSPECTIVE 32.5 ADVANTAGES OF ELECTRONIC BANKING FROM CUSTOMERS’ PERSPECTIVE 3

3. INTERNET BANKING IN GREECE 3

3.1 ETHNIKI BANK 33.2 ALPHA BANK 33.3 EFG EUROBANK-ERGASIAS 33.4 PIRAEUS BANK 33.5 MARFIN EGNATIA BANK 3

4 LITERATURE REVIEW 3

3.1 OVERVIEW OF MODELS 33.2 TECHNOLOGY ACCEPTANCE MODEL 33.2.1 INTRODUCTION OF TAM 33.2.2 EXTENSIONS OF TAM 33.3 TAM RECENTLY 33.3.1 TAM AND INTERNET BASED INFORMATION SYSTEMS 33.4 TAM AND INTERNET BANKING 33.4.1 STUDIES OF INTERNET BANKING USING OTHER MODELS 33.5 TECHNOLOGY ACCEPTANCE AND CULTURE 33.5.1 HOFSTEDE’S CULTURAL DIMENSIONS 33.5.2 CULTURE AND TAM 3

5. MODEL 3

5.1 PERCEIVED USEFULNESS 35.2 PERCEIVED EASE OF USE 35.3 COMPUTER SELF-EFFICACY 35.4 FACILITATING CONDITIONS 35.5 PERCEIVED WEB SECURITY 35.6 UNCERTAINTY AVOIDANCE 3

6. RESEARCH METHOD 3

3

6.1 QUESTIONNAIRES 36.2 FIRST STUDY 36.3 SECOND STUDY 36.4 SAMPLE AND DEMOGRAPHIC CHARACTERISTICS 36.4.1 FIRST STUDY 36.4.2 SECOND STUDY 3

7. ANALYSIS AND FINDINGS 3

7.1 FACTOR ANALYSIS 37.1.1 FACTOR ANALYSIS FOR THE PERCEIVED EASE OF USE 37.1.2 FACTOR ANALYSIS FOR THE PERCEIVED USEFULNESS 37.1.3 FACTOR ANALYSIS FOR PERCEIVED WEB SECURITY 37.1.4 FACTOR ANALYSIS FOR COMPUTER SELF-EFFICACY 37.1.5 FACTOR ANALYSIS FOR FACILITATING CONDITIONS 37.1.6 FACTOR ANALYSIS FOR UNCERTAINTY AVOIDANCE 37.1.7 FACTOR ANALYSIS FOR INTENTION TO USE INTERNET BANKING 37.1.8 CONCLUSIONS OF FACTOR ANALYSES 37.2 REGRESSION ANALYSES 37.2.1 FIRST STUDY 37.2.2 SECOND STUDY 37.2.3 CONCLUSIONS OF REGRESSION ANALYSES 3

8. CONCLUSIONS 3

8.1 DISCUSSION 38.2 RESEARCH QUESTIONS 38.3 LIMITATIONS 38.4 SUGGESTIONS FOR FUTURE RESEARCH 38.5 CONCLUSION 3

APPENDIX A 3

APPENDIX B 3

APPENDIX C 3

References 3

4

List of Tables and Figures

TablesTable 1.1: Internet shopping and security related indicators...................................................................3Table 2.1: Banking Transaction Costs......................................................................................3Table 4.1: MIS Journal Rankings..................................................................................................3Table 4.2: Models of Individual acceptance of information systems..............................3Table 4.3: Information Systems studied using TAM.............................................................3Table 6.1: Demographics of respondents................................................................................3Table 6.2: Use of Internet Banking.............................................................................................3Table 7.1 :Factor Loadings for Perceived Ease of Use.........................................................3Table 7.2 : Factor Loadings for Perceived Usefulness.........................................................3Table 7.3: Factor Loadings for Perceived Web Security......................................................3Table 7.4: Factor Loadings for Computer Self-Efficacy.......................................................3Table 7.5: Factor Loadings for Facilitating Conditions.........................................................3Table 7.6: Factor Loadings for Uncertainty Avoidance........................................................3Table 7.7: Factor Loadings for Intention to Use Internet Banking...................................3Table 7.8: Regression analysis for Intention to use internet banking............................3Table 7.9: Regression analysis for perceived ease of use..................................................3Table 7.10: Regression analysis for perceived usefulness.................................................3Table 7.11: Regression analysis for Intention to use internet banking..........................3Table 7.12: Regression analysis for perceived ease of use...............................................3Table 7.13: Regression analysis for perceived usefulness.................................................3Table 7.14: Hypotheses overview...............................................................................................3

FiguresFigure 1: Electronic Forms of Banking Business_____________________________________3Figure 2: General Rankings_______________________________________________________3Figure 3: TAM_____________________________________________________________________3Figure 4: TAM2___________________________________________________________________3Figure 5: TAM3___________________________________________________________________3Figure 6: Individuals' level of computer skills 2005________________________________3Figure 7: Internet access for households, 2007 (%)________________________________3Figure 8: Place of Internet use, EU-27, 2007 (% of individuals who accessed the Internet during the last 3 months)________________________________________________3Figure 9: Extended technology accepted model currently used to examine the adoption of internet banking in Greece____________________________________________3

5

AcknowledgementCompleting this thesis, I would like to express my gratitude to my parents for their endless support. I would like to thank Roeland Aernoudts who always had time to offer me valuable advice and help during this project. His guidance made my work easier and much funnier leading to a wonderful cooperation, which fortunately does not end with this thesis. Especially I would like to thank Amanda Pouliasi who helped me in the translation of the questionnaires and the three managers (who want to remain anonymous) of the banks who showed their interest about this study and offered their cooperation. Last but not least I would like to thank my friends and especially Giannis and Irene for their valuable help.

6

1. IntroductionOne of the major and widespread technologies is the Internet. The first introduction of the Internet was in the beginning of the 90s. Since then the Internet has attained high rates of penetration in our lives. The rapid growth of the Internet had a great impact on society. Furthermore, the technological innovations affected every business sector. One of these sectors and maybe one of the most important is the banking sector. The banking sector1employs about three million people in the European Union and generates about 490 billion in added value (latest available figures – 2004, Eurostat). The Internet along with other ICT systems offer opportunities of growth and increase in added value not only for the customers but also for the banks. Banks currently are able to achieve full automation of the everyday transactions thus allowing for reductions in the work force and subsequently the workload of employees. Sophisticated ICT systems along with trained and capable work force achieve full automation of ordinary tasks thus providing the opportunity to the employees to dedicate their time and efforts to more complicated financial services. Dedicated IT systems transparently and effectively manage all transactions and in connection with other systems (ERP) offer effective solutions for the automation of a bank2. In general, the impact of ICT on banking is huge and of great importance. In this thesis internet banking will be the core subject.

One of the most important changes that were set off by the Internet is a new way of distribution of services. The Internet enables a new distribution channel that many business sectors want to take advantage of. . Since the Internet appeared there are three business models applied by the banks, the traditional brick and mortar model, the click and mortar model and the Internet only model. Traditional banks which tried to take advantage of the Internet and provide 1 The European e-Business Report 2008 http://www.ebusiness-watch.org/key_reports/synthesis_reports.htm2See footnote 1

7

such a delivery channel to their customers use the click and mortar business model which is a combination between the traditional brick and mortar model with the technology of the Internet. The first brick and mortar bank which established online presence was the Wells Fargo (Hernadez-Murillo et al. 2008). According to (DeYoung 2005) the strategic core of the click and mortar banks is to direct the simple standardized transactions to the Internet channel and the specialized high-value added transactions to the more expensive branch channel. According to the author simple low-value added transactions are money transfer, bill payments etc. On the other hand, high-value added transactions are small business lending, investment banking etc.

The last business model is the Internet only model. Banks without any physical presence use this model in order to reduce their operating costs whereas they can exhibit high profits. However, internet only banks face mistrust of customers who still feel the need for face-to-face contact when performing important banking transactions. At the same time brick and mortar banks face the challenge of technological innovation and fear competition by internet banks. The choice of the business model that banks will use is a decision based on the profitability. Several studies have examined the profitability of each business model and the general sense is that internet only banks exhibit lower profits than traditional banks. Furst et al. (2002) compared the return on equity (ROE) of de novo click and mortar and brick and mortar banks and concluded that the performance of brick and mortar banks is significantly higher than those of click and mortar. On the other hand after many years DeYoung et al. (2007) concluded that the use of the Internet as a channel increased revenues from deposit services in US banks.

8

The traditional way to conduct transactions so far was to use the brick and mortar banks. .Although, the Internet era brought e-banking, which is the new way to conduct not only transactions but also to transfer money, manage investments and loans, etc. According to a study of Deutsche Bank3 (2006) the usage of internet banking grows most of the time at the expense of branch visits. The advantages of internet banking are dual, not only customers have the advantage of accessing their account any time they want, and conduct their transactions regardless of their location, but also, banks experience the unique advantages of internet and find ways of providing the same services with much less costs.

Bartlett (2008) wrote an article in the Credit Union Magazine presenting the current situation pertaining to internet banking from a bank’s perspective. Specifically he presented views of two CEOs. Kevin Ralofski president/CEO of Vacationland Federal Credit Union believes that “internet banking has made the credit union much more profitable, competitive and desirable to members and nonmembers”. He underlines the importance of internet banking and refers to it as a must have investment and prerequisite in order to obtain the younger crowd as customers. Phil Meyer, the president/CEO of 213 million asset Ohio University Credit Union, Athens refers to internet banking as a feature that a bank must offer. Kevin Ralofski and Phil Meyer offer two examples to illustrate the impacts of internet banking in their credit unions. In the first case, one third of the customers are using internet banking resulting in a reduction of mailing and paper costs in the order of $55,000 annually. Phil Mayer is of the opinion that it is better for customers to use internet to conduct a transaction which approximately costs two or three cents than to visit a branch.

3 http://www.dbresearch.com/PROD/DBR_INTERNET_DE-PROD/PROD0000000000196129.pdf

9

These two examples depict exactly the unique advantages of internet banking. Today e-banking has become a commodity in Europe and according to bank reports more than 30 percent of the transactions are conducted online4. Furthermore, the number of e-banking users exhibits a growth of 10 percent within the period of 2003-20075. If growth continues at the same rates in 2020 the average adoption rate will be 50 to 60 percent, an adoption rate that is seen now in Sweden and Denmark. The rates of adoption of internet banking among the countries of Europe vary. Eurostat, the Statistical Office of the European Communities, presents a selection of statistics concerning internet activities, security concern and virus attacks.Table 1.1 offers valuable insights on the use of internet and internet banking in Europe.

Table 1.1: Internet shopping and security related indicators

% of all individuals, aged 16-74, who: % of internet users, aged 16-74, who:Used internet in the last three months

Shopped onthe internet

Avoided e-shopping due to security concerns

Used internet banking

Had computervirus

Made safetycopies

2007 2007 2006 2007 2007 2007EU27 57 30 12 44 23 23Belgium 67 21 12 52 26 20Bulgaria 31 3 3 5 17 26Czech Republic 49 17 3 24 7 32Denmark 81 55** 10 70 23 17Germany 72 52 14 49 21 25Estonia 64 9 12 83 15 14Ireland 57 33 3 42 17 27Greece 33 8 14 12 23 43Spain 52 18 27 31 25 18France 64 35 15 51 28 35Italy 38 10 9 31 20 20Cyprus 38 10 20 31 19 32Latvia 55 11 3 50 24 18Lithuania 49 6 7 43 41 17Luxembourg 78 47 13 58 26 26Hungary 52 11 15 23 25 19Malta*** 45 20 : 48 34 34Netherlands 84 55 14 77 20 25Austria 67 36 8 44 19 23Poland 44 16 4 29 31 13Portugal 40 9 13 29 26 17Romania 24 3 1 7 24 28Slovenia 53 16 19 36 35 23Slovakia 56 16 8 27 22 22Finland 79 48 26 84 23 19Sweden 80 53 7 71 16 15United 72 53 9 45 23 20

4 See footnote 15 See footnote 3

10

KingdomSource: Eurostat, the Statistical Office of the European Communitieshttp://epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/pls/portal/docs/PAGE/PGP_PRD_CAT_PREREL/PGE_CAT_PREREL_YEAR_2008/PGE_CAT_PREREL_YEAR_2008_MONTH_02/4-08022008-EN-AP.PDF

11

In the 27 member countries of the European Union, internet users meaning individuals aged from 16 to 74 who had used internet in the last three months, increased from 52 percent in 2006 to 57 percent in 2007. During the same period, the proportion of internet users who use internet banking grew from 38% to 44% within this group.

Greece is almost in the last position for every indicator. More specifically, 33% of all individuals aged 16 to 74 use the internet over the last three months and only 12% used internet banking. Moreover, the very low percentage in the order of 5% shows the individuals who purchased goods over the internet. These numbers locate Greece at the bottom along with Bulgaria, which exhibits a rate of 31% of internet use for the last three months and a rate of 5% when it comes to usage of internet banking, and Romania shows rates of 24% and 7% respectively. On the other hand, Finland (84%), Estonia (83%) and the Netherlands (77%) are first on this ranking in the use of internet banking. Since the advantages of using and offering internet banking are more than clear, a wide use and adoption of it is expected. However, differences on the use of internet banking between countries in the EU are large. According to Internet World Stats6, penetration of the Internet in Greece is approximately 35.3 % exhibiting a growth of 280% during the period of 2000-2007. Nevertheless, internet banking does not seem to follow the same path. Until now, there is a lack of thorough research trying to examine this paradox in Greece. There is a stream of research examining the adoption of internet banking in many countries regardless of the penetration rate. Many researchers in developed and developing countries having identified the importance and the benefits of such a technological innovation have conducted studies in order to help starting or strengthening the adoption. My thesis attempts to cover this gap by examining the

6 http://www.internetworldstats.com

12

adoption of internet banking in Greece. Specifically the main research question that this thesis attempts to answer is:

Why is the adoption of internet banking limited in Greece comparing to other European countries?

In order to achieve this we have to realize that internet banking is an innovation which has to be adopted by consumers. The acceptance of new information systems is a complex procedure depending on the nature and features of the innovation. Besides the technical issues, each time the context in which the information system is implemented matters, therefore organizational or national culture has great impact. The differences between each country are so important that these alone may determine the success of a technological innovation. For this reason, a separate approach for each country is required. Thus, the examination of the determinants of customer acceptance of internet banking would be interesting taking into consideration the peculiarities of Greece. Therefore the second and third research questions are:

Which are determinants of consumers’ adoption of internet banking in Greece?Is the culture of Greece a determinant of the adoption of internet banking?

Since internet banking proves to be an important distribution channel for the banks, implications for banks are provided when addressing the answer to the last research question:

Which actions should be taken by Greek banks in order to promote the use of internet banking?

13

1.1 MotivationThe emergence of the Internet brought major changes to the banking sector. The introduction of internet banking as delivery and communication channel between banks and customers altered banks’ business models. The traditional brick and mortar model is being replaced by the click and mortar model or the internet only. The importance of the internet banking and the impact that has on the banking sector is great. Numerous studies try to examine the economic impact of this new service. From banks’ perspective there is the ability to lower their costs by reducing the number of physical branches, the number of employees and as well as the operation costs. Several studies try to examine the profitability of each business model as well as economic growth of the banks resulting from the implementation of the internet banking. On the other hand there are impacts for customers too. Using the internet banking, customers are able to reduce their direct and indirect costs. Most of the banks, offer their services through the Internet for free, and customers avoid the costs of visiting the banks to conduct transactions. Besides the economic impacts, the use of internet banking has societal impacts too. As far as the banks are concerned, the automation of some routine transactions may lead to a reduction of a banks’ work force. Firing employees or relocating them is a consequence of the automation of the bank processes. Conducting transactions online alters the traditional way of banking. The Internet undoubtedly has many advantages but it has also some issues of concern. Inevitably the use of the Internet results in a faceless market with minimum human communication and contact. Like every other sector that was affected by the introduction of the Internet also the bank sector is going to lose its “face”.

It is clear that the implementation of internet banking has economic and societal impacts. From banks’ and customers’ perspective it is of great importance the successful implementation of internet

14

banking which leads in important cost savings for both sides. This study is an effort which aims to offer some insights for the banks for further improvements of that service.

2. Overview of e-BankingThe following chapter presents an overview of the electronic banking services. The history and evolution of home banking to what we refer today as internet banking is presented along with an overview of the advantages of internet banking for both banks and customers.

2.1 Home BankingThere is a plethora of available definitions regarding banking and finance on the internet but most of the times are vague. Of course, internet banking is not the only option available for consumers. The book Banking and Finance on the Internet of Cronin (1997) offers valuable insights concerning history and presence of electronic banking.

Home banking was the first term that appeared to describe the process of banking from the convenience of your home, any time and day you like. The universal notion of home banking has existed since 1970. The first approach to offer such a service was initiated in 1970 using a Touch-Tone telephone. The expectations for telephone banking were great since the telephone was a widespread technology, however the results showed the opposite. In the 1980s the next technology used for banking was television, another widespread technology used, which did not fulfil the

15

expectations due to the two-way cable that was needed. During the decades of the 80s and 90s the appearance of personal computers introduced a new technology that could facilitate home banking but like every other new technology pertaining to banking it failed.

2.2 Banking on the InternetTrying to distinguish the terms concerning banking using alternative channels several useful definitions found in the literature are presented. Internet banking, e-banking, online banking and pc banking are the most frequently used terms by individuals. These terms are used by users almost interchangeably in order to describe their interaction with a bank. These terms are however different from each other and are used to describe different ways of banking.

According to Hannan et al. (2007) the terms e-banking and internet banking are used as complements. United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD, 2002) defines internet banking “as the deployment over the Internet of retail and wholesale banking services. It involves individual and corporate clients, and includes bank transfers, payments and settlements, documentary collections and credits, corporate and household lending, card business and some others”. Internet banking is the latest form of banking over the internet without the need of any specific program. Users are able to access their account at any time and from any place they want. Only the use of a web browser such as “internet explorer” or “firefox” is enough. Users have full control over their accounts, performing a wide range of activities far more sophisticated and advanced from the simple checking of the balance or the transfer of money.

However, internet banking is not the first step in performing electronic transactions. The process of conducting banking

16

electronically was initiated several years ago and over time evolved to the form of internet banking we know today. Home banking is the antecedent of every service of electronic banking. Besides home banking, there were Automated Teller Machines (ATMs), phone banking and PC banking. Automated teller machines (ATMs), which are still a very popular means of banking and facilitate consumers for conducting their every-day transactions, were the first electronic machines which enabled electronic access to customers’ accounts. PC banking and online banking are also antecedents of internet banking. The term online banking is an offshoot of PC banking. PC banking is the way to conduct banking using a personal computer, a dial-up modem and software. The software is offered most of the times by the bank but there are some cases in which the banks do not provide the specific program. In these cases, software companies offer the program. This type of banking is called on-line banking.

The first online banking services were offered in 1980s by the four biggest banks in America (Citibank, Chase Manhattan, Chemical and Manufacturers Hanover). All of them offered online banking using different programs and interfaces and different names. Most of them though, failed to attract customers. Security First Network Bank (SFNB) was the first internet bank offering online banking. October 18 1995 SFNB went online for the first time. SFNB was the first bank in the history without any physical presence that was doing business through internet (Cronin 1997).

According to Cronin (1997), there are some basic differences between internet banking and online banking. First of all there are some technical details that differentiate the two services. Internet banking is a process that is not dependent to the computer of the user which means that user do not have to install any specific software in order to conduct internet banking or store any data in

17

his personal computer. The independence of the users’ personal computer means that internet banking can be conducted everywhere using different computers whereas online banking can be very restrictive. Moreover, consumers are not tied with any software company and they manage their private information with their favourite program.

Besides the types of banking that uses computers as a mean to conduct transactions there are other two types that use phones. Phone banking as mentioned before was the first approach to implement home banking. It is a very common way to conduct banking from any place enabling customers to have access to their accounts by using a simple phone line. Mobile banking is a type of banking that makes use of mobile devices. Mobile devices or Personal Digital Assistants (PDA) using Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) technology and access to the Internet enable individuals to access their bank accounts.

Figure 1 represents the existing available forms of banking business.

Figure 1: Electronic Forms of Banking Business

18

Online bankingPC Banking

2.3 Transactions Over the InternetA very helpful classification of the transactions conducted using alternative ways of banking is presented by Cronin (1997). Specifically, Cronin proposes three categories

1. Basic products and services include account checking, reports with the most recent transactions, twenty-four hours account management and home financial management services such as household budgeting.

2. Intermediate products and services include any kind of bill payments, account reconciliation, loan management as well as historical performance data and stock and mutual funds information.

3. Advanced products and services include more sophisticated services such as foreign exchange currency trading, tax return preparation, income tax filings etc.

19

e-Banking

Internet banking

Other channels (such as self service terminals)

Mobile Banking

Telephone banking

2.4 Advantages of Electronic Banking from Banks’ PerspectiveThe advantages of internet banking are very important for the banks. The first advantage for the banks is in the savings on costs. In Table 2.2 (Benton 2002) the cost of transactions using different channels are presented and it is more than obvious that the Internet is the cheapest delivery channel for the banks. According to Mols, (1998) electronic banking is considered to be a “cheap” distribution channel for the banks. According to Jayawardhena (2000) the cost of a simple non-cash transactions can be 11 times more expensive for the bank if is conducted in the physical branch of the bank and not over the Internet. These estimates are based on studies by Downes and Mui (1998), Wylie (1999). It is clear that the Internet is a cheap distribution channel, it is important though to understand how exactly the utilization of the Internet results in a reduction of costs. According to Jayawardhena (2000) the main reasons of the cost reduction is because of the reduction and the more effective use of personnel and equipment as well as from the economic usage of space and operational savings. Furthermore, banks can reduce paper work, eliminate human errors and subsequent customer disputes (Kiang et al. 2000). Additionally banks are able to save costs reducing human resources or even reducing the number of physical branches. The enormous savings of physical branch reduction cannot be compared with the costs of maintaining a web site. According to DeYoung (2005), banks in order to exhibit profits should direct customers to the low-cost internet channel thus reducing the resultant surplus branches or convert them into sales outlets rather than transactions centres.

20

Table 2.2: Banking Transaction CostsChannel Average cost per

TransactionFull service branch $ 1.00Mail $ 0.70Telephone $ 0.25PC Banking $ 0.015Internet Banking $ 0.010Definition : Direct cost of a non-cash payment transaction (excludes set-up installation and capital expenditure cost)

Source: Benton (2002)

Moreover using the Internet as a channel to deliver services is a way for banks not only to retain existing customers but also to attract new ones. First of all, Lymperopoulos et al. (2004) mentions the image of the bank. Banks, providing technological innovation to their customers build their reputation and discourage consumers from switching over to competitors, attracting more customers and retaining existing ones. Jayawardhena (2000) shows that the proportion of users who use the Internet are usually well educated and wealthy which “suggests that potential users are high net worth customers”. Probably they keep higher balances in their accounts and conduct more transactions, which mean higher revenues for the banks. Furthermore Mols (1998) found that e-banking users are more satisfied with their bank compared to non-users, provide more positive word-of-mouth communication, and they exhibit more possibilities to purchase again and less possibilities to change bank.

21

Jayawardhena (2000) refers to mass customization as an advantage of internet banking. Internet banking enables banks to successfully segment and target their customers and provide deep personalization to their relationship making easier to retain them. Dannesnberg and Kellner (1998) refer that using the Internet is possible for the banks to customize information according to users’ personal needs.

According to Jayawardhena (2000) the Internet facilitates effective marketing and communication with the customers. Quelch and Klein (1996) mention the advantage of advertisement. Specifically, the banks have the opportunity to host their advertisements and marketing campaigns with minimum costs skipping the incremental charges of prolonged exposure that exist in traditional media. Banks using the Internet, are able without any additional costs to advertise their products 24 hours per day. Furthermore, they can inform their customers for any new products available with minimum costs. Mass customization enables banks offer tailored offers to their customers any time and day retaining customer’s satisfaction and loyalty.

2.5 Advantages of Electronic Banking from Customers’ PerspectiveUndoubtedly, the advantages using the Internet as a delivery channel for the banks are important, but what happens with the customers. The emergence of the Internet brought some major changes which affect the consumers. The reduction of the prices is a fact. Brynjolfsson and Smith (2000) conducted a research about the prices of CDs and books on the Internet compared to prices on conventional brick and mortar stores. They concluded that the prices of these commodities are lower on the Internet (including the costs of shipping and handling). According to the authors conventional stores will find it difficult to follow these prices. That happens because the Internet offers unique advantages to the

22

sellers, in our case to the banks, which in turn are transferred to the customers. The reduction of costs exhibiting by the banks has impact on the customers’ costs. Indeed most of the banks don’t charge any fees for the internet services or some others charge a small fee. Furthermore the Internet offers great transparency. Customers are able to look for the best offer and the best price in minimum time and cost compelling banks to be competitive thus reducing the prices as much as they can and offering the best products to the customers.

Furthermore, since the Internet changed our way of conducting daily tasks, convenience became an integral part. Using internet banking customers are able to conduct transactions any day and time they want, they are no longer confronted with the inconvenient bank working hours, they avoid the time-consuming cues and they even avoid the visits to ATMs. According to Nixon and Nixon (2000) internet banking provides fast services that are available seven days a week, 24 hours a day and customers can choose when and where to conduct their transactions.

23

3. Internet Banking in GreeceThe advantages of using the internet to serve customers can not stay unnoticed by the Greek banks. The Internet comprises an extremely cheap channel which at the same time can offer better service to the customers. Banks implementing internet banking are able to offer a wide range of services while at the same time achieve deep personalization in the relationships with the customers. Greek banks in order to increase their market share and to stay competitive started providing this new service. According to Lymperopoulos et al. (2004) internet banking first appeared in Greece in 1997 but none of the Greek banks adopted it before 1999.

24

The first effort of the banks to transit into the “internet era” was in December 1995 when Alpha Bank launched a web site for the first time. More banks followed their example, specifically two years later, in 1997, when Emporiki Bank launched their web site, Egnatia Bank in February 1998 and EFG Eurobank-Ergasias in May 1998. Nevertheless, the first bank in Greece that offered full internet banking services to their customers was Egnatia Bank in November 1998 (Alimonos et al. 1998). Nowadays all the banks in Greece provide internet banking services to their customers. A brief overview of internet banking of the biggest banks in Greece is following.

3.1 Ethniki BankDespite the fact that Ethniki Bank (www.nbg.gr) was not one of the early adopters of internet banking, now they offer full internet banking services to their customers. In particular, customers are able to access their account through internet, check their account balance and have complete and timely information about their transactions. In order for a customer to have access to these basic non-monetary services, user ID and password is required. If the customers want to conduct monetary actions like transfer money to other accounts, pay bills, manage loans or even have full control of their stocks and timely information of the stock market (with ten minutes delay) they should use TAN and CHECK. In order to maximize the security which is a very important concern for transactions over the Internet Ethniki provides printed lists with unique numbers (TAN) which have to be activated by the user. Besides TAN and CHECK there is also e-code and CHECK, which provides the same facilities and the same purpose and are essentially the electronic version of the code lists.

25

3.2 Alpha BankIn November 1998, Alpha Bank (http://www.alpha.gr) introduced for the first time internet banking to their customers. Customers of Alpha Bank enjoy a wide variety of services. Besides the basic features, which enable customers to connect to their accounts twenty-four hours per day and check their balance and their transactions or edit their profile, they can also transfer money to every account they want, pay bills and wide variety of other services. The system of authentication they use is very similar to the previous one since the customer in order to log in and use non-monetary services has to provide user ID (15 digits) and a password. In order to strengthen security of the transactions Alpha Bank provides a device which generates an additional six-digit code each time the customer wants to perform a monetary transaction.

3.3 EFG Eurobank-ErgasiasEurobank (www.eurobank.gr) introduced internet banking to their customers in February 2000 for the first time. Recently, Eurobank announced the introduction of the new e-banking. According to their web site, the new e-banking is easier to use, with a friendlier interface, offers high interactivity with the customers and provides improved security. Customers of EFG Eurobank-Ergasias enjoy a wide variety of services ranging from the simplest ones like checking account balance to more advanced services like managing loan instalments or having full access to their portfolios with timely information about stock market. In order to take advantage of these services, customers should have in their possession at least one credit card. The number (16 digits) of the credit card and a unique for its customer password are required for authentication. In order to ensure the privacy, security and integrity of transactions a digital certificate is required from the customers in order to conduct transactions with unknown recipients. To obtain the digital certificate, customers should fill an application. The e-banking

26

service of Eurobank has won many awards, in April 2008 PC World announced Eurobanks’ e-banking as excellent service for the third time in a comparative test conducted among all the e-banking services in Greece. Moreover, in February 2008, editors of RAM magazine announced for sixth time in row Eurobank’s e-banking as “excellent performance”. A detailed description of the awards is available online in the banks’ website.

3.4 Piraeus BankPiraeus Bank (http://www.piraeusbank.gr) introduced internet-banking services to their customers in April 2000 for the first time. An autonomous site for serving customers needs has been developed by Piraeus Bank called Winbank (www.winbank.gr). Winbank offers a wide variety of e-banking services to the customers as long as with information about bank’s activities. Customers of Piraeus Bank need a user ID and password in order to log in and perform non-monetary transactions. If customers obtain from the bank a device called “extraPIN generator” which provides an extra security code they are able to perform monetary transactions. In April 2008, PC World conducted a comparative analysis of fourteen different internet-banking services in terms of initial activation of the service, ease of use, security support and available features. Piraeus won “excellent functionality” and excellent support” and finally being first in the general rankings.

27

Figure 2 presents the general rankings of PC World contest.

Figure 2: General RankingsGeneral Ranking

Bank

General Ranking

Bank

1 Winbank 8 Millennium Bank2 Eurobank 9 National Bank of

Greece3 Alpha Bank 10 Citibank4 Marfin Egnatia

Bank11 Greek Bank

5 Bank of Cyprus 12 Attica Bank6 ATEbank 13 Emporiki Bank7 Geniki Bank 14 Aspis Bank

Source:http://www.piraeusbank.gr/Images/genikikatataksi1.gif

3.5 Marfin Egnatia BankMarfin Egnatia Bank (http://www.marfinegnatiabank.gr) came out from the jointure of three banks; Laiki, Marfin and Egnatia. Customers of Marfin Egnatia bank enjoy complete e-banking services. Using the e-banking of Marfin, customers are able to conduct banking activities with the maximum level of security. Besides the simple actions, customers are able to use specific programs created by Marfin, which enable them to perform actions that are more sophisticated. In particular, customers using “eInsurance” are able to choose, take useful information and pay online insurance products, using “eBrokerage” customers have real time information about stock market as well as fully control their portfolios and finally using “eInvestment” they can manage online their transactions of reciprocal capital. Customers in order to

28

connect and use internet banking they have to authenticate first using their username and password. Furthermore, like in the previous cases for monetary transactions or sensitive actions like changing of the password an additional password is required. Marfin Egnatia Bank in order to ensure the privacy of the transactions requires a one-time code, which is provided by a device, called security token. Older customers may still use TAN lists. The web site of the bank supports Secure Socket Layer (SSL) protocol architecture enabling cryptography of data of 128-bit. Furthermore, a virtual keyboard is appearing on the screen every time the customer tries to log in avoiding this way the use the regular keyboard that eliminates the possibility of theft of sensitive data like user names or password from malware programs.

We have to notice that now every bank in Greece provides internet banking as well as mobile banking. In all the above cases, the banks offer clear instructions about internet banking and detailed information about the costs of this service. Furthermore, security issues are explained on the web sites as well as technical aspects resulting to full amount of information available for the customers. In many of these web sites there is also a demo available explaining the process of using internet banking to customers in every detail.

29

4 Literature ReviewThis section presents a review of the existing literature on the acceptance of new information systems. The literature review was conducted in the following manner; first, journals were selected based on the journal-ranking tables obtained from the Association of Information Systems7. The first twenty journals were selected; Management Information Systems Quarterly, Information Systems Research and Management Science were among the journals examined. Table 4.3 presents the top twenty journals of information systems. Erasmus University library facilitated the next step for my research by providing me access to publications services; Proquest, EBSCO and JSTOR.

Using the keywords; Technology acceptance model (TAM), acceptance of information systems, internet banking, e-banking and culture I performed a thorough search of the relevant literature which revealed a huge amount of existing research on this subject. A selection of relevant articles was made. Methods used and the technologies examined vary among the different studies. There is a

7 http://home.aisnet.org/index.cfm

Table 4.3: MIS Journal Rankings MIS Journal Rankings1. MISQ 11. EJIS2. ISR 12. DSS3. CACM 13. IEEESw4. MS 14. I&M5. JMIS 15. ACMTDS6. AI 16. IEEETSE7. DSI 17. ACMTrans8. HBR 18. JCSS9. IEEETrans 19. SMR10. AIMaq 20. CAISSource:http://ais.affiniscape.com/displaycommon.cfm?

an=1&subarticlenbr=432

plethora of models available that have been composed, tested and used to examine how and why individuals adopt new information systems.

3.1 Overview of ModelsMany researchers tried to examine acceptance of information systems. One of the first efforts to examine individual's acceptance of information systems is a study conducted by Fishbein and Ajzen (1975) who introduced Theory of Reasoned Action (TRA). TRA is one of the most fundamental and influential theories of human behaviour (Venkatesh et al. 2003). The main constructs of TRA are Attitude Toward Behavior which is “an individual's positive or negative feelings (evaluative affect) about performing the target behavior” and Subjective Norm (SN) which is defined as “the persons’ perception that most people who are important to him think he should or should not perform the behavior in question” (Fishbein and Ajzen 1975).

Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) (Mathieson 1991, Taylor and Todd 1995b) is an extension of TRA which introduces a new core construct, Perceived Behavioral Control, which is defined as “the perceived ease of or difficulty of performing the behavior” (Ajzen 1991).

Several other models were proposed for examining information technologies and the determinants of their adoption. Motivational Model (MM) uses motivation theory to explain the behavior towards new information technologies. Davis et al. (1992) used motivation theory to study new information systems. The main constructs of this model is Extrinsic Motivation which is defined as “the perception that users will perform this action because it is perceived to be instrumental in achieving valued outcomes that are distinct from the activity itself such as improved job performance, pay, or

31

promotions”. The other construct is Intrinsic Motivation that represents “the perception that users will want to perform an activity for no apparent reinforcement other than the process of performing the activity per se” (Davis et al 1992).

The model though that is more widely utilized is the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM). TAM was first formulated by Davis (1986) in his doctoral thesis. According to TAM, the intention to use the system is determined by two core constructs. “Perceived Usefulness (PU) is the degree to which a person believes that using a particular system would enhance his or her job performance” and “Perceived Ease of Use (PEOU) is the degree to which a person believes that using a particular system would be free of effort” (Davis 1989). According to TAM, the intention to use a new information system is affected by the degree of users’ perception about the usefulness and free of effort use of the system. Moreover, ease of use affect the usefulness indicating that the easier a new system is the more useful will be for the user. TAM proved a consistent and robust model for explaining and predicting users’ acceptance of new information systems explaining a substantial proportion of the variance (about 40%) (Venkatesh V., Davis D. F. 2000).

Venkatesh V., Davis D. F (2000) extended TAM and presented TAM2 by including social influence (Subjective Norms, Voluntariness and Image) and cognitive instruments (Job relevance, Output quality and Result Demonstrability) as variables for predicting perceived usefulness (PU). The construct Subjective Norms (SN) is adapted from TRA/TPB, is a direct determinant of behavioral intention and subsequent in TPB, and is defined as “a person's perception that most people who are important to him think he should or should not perform the behavior in question”. Although it is clear after the literature review and as the two author's results assure that SN has significant effect when the use of the new information system is mandatory and not voluntary. Specifically Venkatesh and Davis

32

(2000) found that SN had significant effect on intention in mandatory settings and not in voluntary. According to the authors TAM2 explain up to 60% of variance.

However, the biggest weakness of TAM according to Dishaw and Strong (1999) is the lack of task focus. This underlies that each technology depends on different factors, applied in different contexts and finally requires different core constructs which results to adapted versions of the model for each technology.

Several other models have been used to examine and predict the acceptance of information systems. Venkatesh et al. (2003) conducted a thorough research about the models used to explain users’ acceptance of information technology. Combined TAM and Theory Planned Behavior (TPB) (C-TAM-TPB) is a combination between TAM and TPB applied by Taylor and Todd (1995a), Model of PC Utilization (MPCU) and Innovation Diffusion Theory (IDT) are the rest of models used, presented in Table 4.4.

Table 4.4: Models of Individual acceptance of information systemsModels Core ConstructsTAM/TAM2 Perceived usefulness, Perceived Ease of Use,

Subjective NormTRA Attitude Toward Behavior, Subjective NormTPB Attitude Toward Behavior, Subjective Norm,

Perceived Behavioral ControlMotivational Model Extrinsic Motivation, Intrinsic MotivationCombined Tam and TPB Attitude Toward Behavior, Subjective Norm,

Perceived Behavioral Control, Perceived UsefulnessModel of PC Utilization Job-fit, Complexity, Long Term consequences,

Affect Toward Use, Social Factors, Facilitating Conditions

Innovation Diffusion Theory

Relative Advantage, Ease of use, Image, Visibility, Compatibility, Results Demonstrability, Voluntariness of Use

33

Source: Venkatesh et al 2003

The most recent model is the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT) (Venkatesh et al. 2003). UTAUT is a unified model for explaining the acceptance of information systems. They built this model after reviewing the existing literature, in particular, they reviewed eight models and from each model they used the most significant construct. Finally, UTUAT has four constructs, which determine the user acceptance and usage behavior;

Performance expectancy is defined as “the degree, to which an individual believes that using the system will help him or her attain gains in job performance”

Effort expectancy is defined as “the degree of ease associated with the use of the system”

Social influence is defined as “the degree to which an individual perceives that important others believe that he or she should use the system” and

Facilitating conditions are defined as “the degree to which an individual believes that organizational and technical infrastructure exists to support the system”

(Venkatesh et al. 2003). In addition, they theorize four moderators: gender, age, voluntariness, and experience. Furthermore, they argue that perceived ease of use is not significant over time and that, factors such as subjective norms (SN) have no significant effect on voluntary information systems. The depth of the research that has been done regarding new information systems is great. Across time researchers has widely used the models mentioned above, they extended them, compared to each other, and utilized them on completely different technologies, different durations of measurement and different samples.

34

3.2 Technology Acceptance Model

3.2.1 Introduction of TAMThe most widely utilized model for examining and predicting users’ acceptance of new information systems is TAM. Davis (1989), Davis et al. (1989) formulated TAM, initially proposed by Davis in his doctoral thesis. Since then TAM has been extended several times, has been adapted to fit new and more advanced technologies but the most important to note is, that it has been validated and used more than any other model so far. TAM is a very powerful and robust model, whose validity and reliability has been proven. The main idea behind technology acceptance model was to explain the use of new information systems. The two basic constructs were Perceived Usefulness (PU) and Perceived Ease of Use (PEOU). Specifically the actual use of the system is affected by the attitude towards the system, which in turn is affected by PU and PEOU. Moreover, PEOU affects PU as the ease of use positively affects and the usefulness of the system. Figure 3 presents the original form of TAM.Figure 3: TAM

Source: Davis et al (1989), Davis (1989)

The original TAM was found to explain approximately 40% of the variance. Since the first time that TAM was introduced, more than twenty years ago, many researchers used it to find the determinants of user adoption of several information systems. Younghwa et al.

35

(2003) conducted a thorough review about TAM. After the first introduction of TAM many researchers replicated the model to examine the acceptance of various technologies. The technologies studied were not as sophisticated as they are today, specifically Adams et al. (1992) replicated TAM to examine the acceptance of word processors, graphics, email, spreadsheets and v-mail. Davis (1993) replicated his previous work to examine email and text editor finding that TAM successfully explains the adoption of both technologies. Subramanian (1994) applied TAM in order to examine two email systems. The findings were consistent with previous studies. This is a small section of the studies conducted using TAM.

36

Table 4.5: Information Systems studied using TAM Type # of IS ISs of each CategoryCommunication Systems

25 (20%)

E-mail (13), V-mail (6), Fax (1), Dial-up Systems (1), Others (e.g cellular) (4)

General Purpose Systems

34 (28%)

Windows (1), PC (or Microcomputer) (9), WWW (or e-commerce) (17), Workstation (3), Computer Resource Center (2), Groupware (2)

Office Systems 33 (27%)

Word processor (16), Spreadsheet (7), Presentation S/W (6), Database programs (2), Groupware (2)

SpecializedBusinessSystems

30 (25%)

Computerized Model (1), Case Tools (4), Hospital IS (Telemedicine) (5), DSS, GSS, GDSS (7), Experts support System (2), Others (e.g. MRP) (11)

In Table 4.5 the technologies studied using TAM are presented. The table is adapted by the Table 1 of Younghwa et al. (2003).

3.2.2 Extensions of TAMVenkatesh et al. (2000) proposed a new millennium version of TAM, TAM2. This study was mostly an effort to understand the determinants of perceived usefulness (PU) which were still unidentified. They present two processes that affect PU, social influence and cognitive instrumental process. Specifically they introduce subjective norm and image as two determinants of the social influence process and job relevance, output quality, result demonstrability and PEOU as constructs of cognitive instrumental process. Moreover, they introduce two moderator factors experience and voluntariness. TAM2 is presented in Figure 4 on the next page. According to the study, TAM2 explained 60% of the variance. In addition, voluntariness was found to be important since the subjective norm affect the intention to use the system only when is mandatory.

37

The extended model TAM2 includes the factors that affect perceived usefulness. The result was a powerful model providing better explanation for adoption of information systems. Venkatesh (2000) conducted a study examining the determinants of perceived ease of use. In the research, they identified computer self-efficacy, computer anxiety, computer playfulness and perceptions of external control (or facilitating conditions) as anchors and perceived enjoyment as well as objective usability as adjustments whereas experience was the moderator factor.

Figure 4: TAM2

Source: Venkatesh et al (2000)

Since the determinants of perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use have been studied and identified, Venkatesh and Bala (2008) combined the two studies presenting an integrated model of technology acceptance, TAM3. They tested the model in longitudinal field studies across four different organizations. Figure 5 on the next page depicts TAM3. One the most important theoretical contribution of this study was the role of experience as a moderating factor. The effect of perceived ease of use on behavioral intention may diminish across time but experience plays important role as the effect of PEOU on PU becomes stronger across time. Furthermore, Venkatesh

38

and Bala (2008) underline the importance of interventions and how these can affect PEOU and PU.

Figure 5: TAM3

Source: Venkatesh and Bala (2008)

3.3 TAM RecentlyThe following part of the literature review consists mostly of studies conducted during the last six years using TAM. Since Younghwa et al. (2003) conducted a very thorough research about TAM until 2002 it is crucial and useful to present the recent literature emerged the last six years. Many researchers used TAM to examine various technologies. The main goal is to present an overview of these

39

studies and the technologies being studied. The main stream of the literature the last years is concerning internet-based technologies. This is expected since the last years the Internet has exhibited high penetration in our lives. An increasing number of technologies and innovations are built and based on the Internet, which makes it an integral part of these technologies. Furthermore, these studies managed to prove that TAM is a valid model for predicting user’s adoption of advanced technologies. Despite the peculiarities that internet adds, TAM is able, in each case with some additions, to explain adequately the acceptance of these technologies.

First of all, it is important to note an major distinction of the information systems. In the literature, there is a major categorization of the information systems, which seems to play important role. Heijden (2004) published an article in MISQ in which he examined the acceptance of hedonic and utilitarian systems and how they differ from each other. Hedonic systems are the systems “which provide self-fulfilling value to the user”. On the other hand, there are utilitarian systems, which “provide instrumental value to the user”. Perceived enjoyment (PE) is an additional variable and is defined “as the fun that one user expects by using the system”. Perceived enjoyment as intrinsic motivation and perceived ease of use (PEOU) found to be strong determinants and stronger than perceived usefulness (PU) for hedonic systems. The author concluded that PEOU and PE are stronger determinants for hedonic systems than PU whereas PU mostly determines the use of utilitarian systems.

The applicability of TAM is wide. In 2002, another advanced and sophisticated technology was examined using TAM. Hong et al. (2002) adapted TAM to examine the acceptance of digital libraries. They introduced external variables which affect perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use. Computer self-efficacy and

40

knowledge search domain are individual differences variables and relevance, terminology and screen design as system characteristics. The result of this study was; an augmented TAM explaining the 52 percent of variance in behavior intention with perceived usefulness as the most significant core construct. Besides the determinants that affect perceived ease of use and perceived usefulness many researchers tried to identify core constructs that are able to predict specific technologies and to extend TAM in order to examine the adoption of these technologies.

3.3.1 TAM and Internet Based Information SystemsIn this section, a review of articles found concerning internet applications is presented. It is noticeable the emergence of studies about online shopping and banking as well as applications using wireless features. Online shopping and internet banking are the new ways of conducting ordinary tasks from the ease of your home. Despite the promising and appealing features that these innovations incorporate, there are several issues concerning their use by the consumers.

Shih (2004) studied user acceptance of e-shopping. In order to understand the determinants of user adoption of the new way to conduct shopping through internet Shih augmented TAM by adding more constructs. Due to the weakness of TAM, the lack of task focus, the author used the following variables; perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, user satisfaction, web security and access costs, perceived quality of e-shopping, attitude and user acceptance. The results of the model indicate that attitude of users positively affect user acceptance but inconsistently with previous studies, the author did not find any significant effect of PU on user acceptance of e-shopping. Similarly, Vijayasarathy (2004) examined consumers’ intention to use online shopping. Apart from usefulness and ease of use, he theorized compatibility, privacy, security,

41

normative beliefs, and self-efficacy as core constructs of the model. The results show that besides the two main constructs of TAM, there are other salient determinants that explain why consumers choose online shopping. Moreover, a noteworthy result is that perceived ease of use found to be more important than perceived usefulness.

Another section of electronic commerce is t-commerce. T-commerce enables the user through an interactive television using remote control or keyboard to purchase goods, although is not a widespread technology. For this reason, Jieun (2005) examined user’s acceptance of t-commerce using an augmented TAM. Perceived enjoyment, perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, trust, normative belief from family and friends, subjective norms attitude and behavioral intention to use were the core constructs of the model. The strongest determinant for both experienced and inexperienced users is perceived enjoyment. The explanation of the above results is consistent with the literature about hedonic systems according to which, intrinsic motivation determines the acceptance of hedonic systems. Another section that exhibited rapid changes due to the introduction of the internet is the banking section. The technology of internet banking was examined by Cheng et al. (2006) and especially the adoption of the service in Hong Kong. In order to achieve that, they used an extended TAM. Perceived web security is the additional construct they added which found to be significant but not as much as PU and PEOU. Consistently with other studies, the significance of PEOU is high but not like PU and it diminishes over time as the users are getting familiar with the new system. Since the nature of internet banking is more utilitarian than hedonic, the result is also consistent with the previous literature.

Furthermore, TAM has been applied also to examine wireless innovations. Mobile Broadband Wireless Access (MBWA) is a new technology, which enables users to play games at higher speed with

42

fast transmission and availability. Users enjoy latest technology games without any limitations of time or place. An extended version of TAM was used by Ha (2007) in order to find the determinants of user intention to use MBWA games. The additional factors included in the model are perceived enjoyment, perceived attractiveness, perceived lower sacrifices and flow experience. In addition, they included in the model gender, age and prior experience as moderating factors. The results from this research are consistent with previous studies. Indeed perceived enjoyment is the strongest determinant like in the case of t-commerce and emphasizes the hedonic nature of the system. The most recent study published is about the acceptance of mobile wireless technology (MWT) (Kim 2008). Mobile wireless technology enables people to have access to internet using WAP phones, personal digital assistants, laptops etc. The technology that was chosen is the smartphone. In order to determine the factors that affect users to adopt the new technology Kim (2008) extended TAM. Perceived Cost Savings (PCSs) and Company’s Willingness to Fund (CWF) are the two constructs added, that along with perceived ease of use, perceived usefulness, behavioral intention and actual use and job relevance and experience as moderating variables consist the extended model. Finally, the model explained the 70% of the variance. The hypotheses tested are supported and the results found are consistent with previous studies, specifically PU and PEOU are strong determinants of user acceptance as well as the additional constructs. Moreover, the moderating factors; experience and job relevance found to be significant.

3.4 TAM and Internet Banking The first part of the literature review was conducted using the method described above. Nevertheless, the snowball effect revealed literature concerning internet banking in other journals. Specifically the last years there was an increased amount of research on

43

internet banking. The emergence and the inarguable advantages of internet banking for both consumers and banks initiated an effort to examine the determinants of individuals’ acceptance. It is of great importance for the banks to have full knowledge of their service as it is relatively new and quite complex. It is noteworthy that the examination of internet banking as an innovation was conducted not only in developing countries but also in developed countries with high rate of adoption like Finland. The constructs and the research methodology used in these studies vary; most of the times depend on the differences between each country.

The adoption of new technologies is always a matter that proclaims investigation. Taiwan, Finland and Turkey are three very different countries in terms of culture, mores and way of living. Wang et al. (2003), Pikkarainen et al. (2004) and Celic (2008) examined the acceptance of internet banking in Taiwan, Finland, and Turkey respectively. All of the researchers based their studies on the same model, TAM, but each one adapted it accordingly to needs of his country. Wang et al. (2004) added computer self-efficacy as an individual difference variable and perceived credibility. They conducted telephone interviews to 123 respondents. The results indicate the appropriateness of using TAM to examine the adoption of internet banking. Interestingly the results show that perceived ease of use is the strongest determinant and the new construct, perceived credibility, found to be more significant than perceived usefulness inconsistent with other studies. Pikkarainen et al. (2004) on the other hand extended TAM by adding perceived enjoyment, information on online banking, security and privacy and quality of internet connection. Perceived usefulness, the basic construct of TAM proved to be the most significant of the model consistent with previous studies. All the hypotheses were supported but in contrast with the study in Taiwan perceived usefulness is the strongest determinant as well as the information about internet banking that

44

consumers have available. The time the study was conducted, approximately the 55 percent of the private banking customers used internet banking whereas according to Table 1.1 (See Chapter 1, pg 10) 84 percent of individuals between sixteen and seventy four years old used internet banking in 2007.

The most recent study about internet banking conducted in Turkey, country very similar to Greece. Celik (2008) added perceived behavioral control (PBC), perceived playfulness (PPL) and perceived risk (PR). The survey was conducted online and 161 respondents participated. The model finally explained 54 percent of the variance and the results indicated that perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use are the strongest determinants of customer’s attitude towards internet banking with PU explaining big proportion of the attitude. Moreover, PPL, PR and PBC found to be significant and affect behavioral intention to use internet banking.

3.4.1 Studies of Internet Banking Using Other ModelsAccording to Sathye (1999), Australian consumers did not seem to use internet banking. Since the first appearance of internet banking, the adoption and growth of internet banking was slow. Sathye built a framework to examine what determinates consumers’ perceptions to use the system. The main factors of the model were; ease of use, security, price/cost, resistance to change, availability of computers/internet and awareness of the service. The main barriers inhibiting the acceptance of internet banking in Australia were according to the results security concerns among users about the new service and lack of awareness about the new service and its advantages. Both determinants can be manipulated by the banks. On the other hand, the results indicated availability of resources like computers and internet and resistance to change form the traditional ways to conduct transactions were not significant.

45

In Singapore, internet banking first appeared in 1997 when simple features based on web sites were supported. Slowly the process of internet banking became familiar but not widespread. Tan and Teo (2000) examined the adoption of internet banking and tried to find the determinants of acceptance from consumers’ perspective. In order to conduct their study they built a framework combining Theory of Planned Behavior and Diffusion Innovation Theory. Three factors were used in the framework; attitude, subjective norms and perceived behavioral control. Finally, the results indicated that subjective norm do not have any significant effect consistent with studies that found that subjective norm is not significant for voluntary technologies and the availability of technology support was almost insignificant. As we mentioned before the construct of availability of resources was insignificant in Finland (Pikkarainen et al. 2004) and in Australia (Sathye 1999).

In Thailand, banks started to provide an increased number of alternative ways to conduct banking by taking advantage of the Internet. Still at an infant phase, internet banking made its appearance and enabled Thailand consumers to conduct basic banking transactions in a faster and more comfortable way. In order to better understand and improve the process of online banking Jaruwachirathanakul and Fink (2004) conducted a very interesting study about internet banking. Their study is based on decomposed theory of Planned Behavior model, according to this model the adoption of internet banking by Thailand consumers depends on three factors:

Attitude to: features of the web site, perceived usefulness, risk and privacy, adoption, and personal preference

Perceived behavioral control: external environment Subjective norm: Culture

46

Moderating factors were also included in the model: age, gender, educational levels, income, internet experience and internet banking experience. In order to facilitate the examination of the determinants of user adoption of internet banking the authors further categorized the factors into, “facilitating factors” which represent what the banks can control and change and “inhibiting factors” as the factors that inhibit the proliferation and they cannot be controlled by the banks. The most important facilitating factors are: perceived usefulness and features of the web site, while the most significant impediment is external environment. This interesting and useful categorization helps banks to discern what they can improve in the service by themselves in order to to increase its use by customers.

3.5 Technology Acceptance and CultureThe literature indicates that TAM is a widely used model for predicting user acceptance of new information systems. Since the first formulation of TAM, many researchers extended the model and added several variables in order to improve its explanatory power. The lack of specific task focus of TAM is a major weakness according to Dishaw and Strong (1999) but it also provides a general applicability of TAM since the main constructs of the model are able to provide adequate explanation for the adoption of every information system. Nevertheless, there was major gap, TAM was formulated in the United States and until 1997 there was no effort of applying TAM anywhere else apart from North America (Straub et al. 1997). Undoubtedly, TAM is a well-validated model, used to examine the acceptance of several technologies with success but the absence of a basic construct is apparent. TAM omits cultural factors that potentially affect the acceptance of information systems. Culture can play an important role to the attitude towards a technology since certain beliefs and opinions are formed inside a cultural group. The way of living, habits, mores and morals might

47

affect individuals’ perceptions toward a technology in to a large extent. Culture is believed to shape individuals values and to affect behavior (Hofstede 1984, Straub et al 2002). Of course, the extent to which countries differ from each other varies. Since the most studies conducted in the United States, the incorporation of cultural factors was not essential. Nevertheless there are studies conducted in other countries where the incorporation of cultural dimensions give better explanatory power to the model and provide better and more complete picture of the determinants. Straub et al. (1997) argued that connections between culture and use of information systems exist.

There are plenty definitions of culture. According to Hofstede, culture is “the collective programming of the human mind that distinguishes the members of one human group from those of another. Culture in this sense is a system of collectively held values” Hofstede (1980). In this study, I use Hofstede’s definition.

3.5.1 Hofstede’s cultural dimensionsIn 1980, Hofstede conducted a study in which he attempted to classify nations based on broad value differences. Hofstede’s study was a very large-scale attempt including 66 (later limited to 40) countries and 117,000 questionnaires (Hofstede 1980). Hofstede identified four dimensions of culture; power distance (PD), collectivism vs. individualism, femininity vs. masculinity and uncertainty avoidance (UA).

Power Distance: Is the degree to which the less powerful members of the society believe and accept that the power is distributed unequally. This dimension exists in many contexts. In the organization context, for example power distance describes at which extent the employees believe that they have power distance with their boss. In countries with high power distance like Malaysia,

48

Guatemala and Panama, the employees accept the power distance. In such cultures and environments the role and the power that the boss has is perceived to be fair, thus creating an environment with strict hierarchies and fear of the superior. On the other hand, in countries with low power distance like Austria, Israel, Denmark, New Zealand and Ireland the employees do not hesitate to challenge power distance and are willing to lower it. The structure of the hierarchies is dynamic allowing initiatives from the employees.

Collectivism vs. Individualism: This dimension refers to the degree at which individuals believe they belong to a group or not. The main characteristic of individualistic societies is the belief that everyone acts for himself. Indeed the absence of sense of group makes individuals decide considering themselves and their families aiming at personal gain. On the other hand, in collectivist countries where the sense of group is very strong, individuals care more about the group than about themselves. In organizations context, individualism is translated as individuals’ decisions and initiatives driven mainly by willingness of personal achievement whereas collectivism is translated as participation and loyalty to the group without personal ambitions of individual initiative and success. Based on Hofstede’s measures countries like United States, United Kingdom, Canada and the Netherlands score high in this dimension while Guatemala, Ecuador, Panama, Venezuela and Colombia score low.

Uncertainty Avoidance: According to Hofstede (1980), this dimension refers to the extent at which individuals accept or reject uncertain and ambiguous situations and describes the tolerance that individuals exhibit in unstructured situations. Unstructured situations are situations novel, unknown, surprising or different from usual8. Countries which score high in this dimension like Greece,

8 http://www.geert-hofstede.com/

49

Portugal, Guatemala, Uruguay, and Belgium tend to find ways to reduce these uncertainties by applying strict rules leading to safety and security. On the other hand, countries like Singapore, Jamaica, Denmark, Sweden and Hong Kong which score low in this dimension tend to accept risks. According to Hofstede (1984) and McCoy et al. (2007), individuals in uncertainty accepting countries are characterized by willingness to take decisions, to achieve and taking risks.

Masculinity vs. Femininity: this dimension ranks countries based on values which mainly depict the differences between genders. Countries scoring high in this dimension (high masculinity) exhibit values like assertiveness, competitiveness and ambition whereas feminine countries seem to exhibit more feminine values like personal relationships and modesty

Later Hofstede added a fifth dimension. Long-Term Orientation is a fifth dimension found in a study among students from twenty-three countries of the world9. This dimension describes the society’s time horizon. Specifically countries like China, Hong Kong and Japan, which are long term oriented, are characterized by values like persistence and thrift whereas short term oriented countries are characterized by personal steadiness and stability and respect of tradition10.

3.5.2 Culture and TAMHaving explained the basic dimensions of culture it is imperative to understand how culture affects acceptance of innovations and how is incorporated in TAM. First of all, the inapplicability of TAM to other cultures apart from United States was proved by Straub et al. (1997). This was the first study tried to apply TAM in other countries like Switzerland and Japan. Specifically the authors examined how 9 See footnote 210 http://www.clearlycultural.com/geert-hofstede-cultural-dimensions/

50

well TAM model explains the acceptance of e-mail in these countries. The results revealed a weakness of TAM to predict the use of e-mail in Japan explaining only one percent of the variance whereas in US and in Switzerland explained ten percent. Looking at the results it is obvious that TAM cannot hold in Japan. Cultural factors shape perceptions and beliefs of individuals resulting to different perceptions toward the acceptance of information systems.

Despite the wide use of Hofstede’s measures, there are several compunctions expressed by researchers. First of all three decades have passed since Hofstedes’ research. Significant changes occurred to the world and to the countries, which might alter the scores of each country (McCoy et al. 2005b). Furthermore McCoy et al. (2005b) argued that national culture scores are not appropriate for integrating them in TAM since TAM examines individuals’ adoption of information systems. Individuals from the same country can score different in each category underlying that a trait based approach assessing each individuals scores might fit better in an individual-based model. The authors refer the existence of other newer instruments and advice the use of individual level instrument of Dorfman and Howell (1988), based on Hofstedes’ dimensions, which is able to provide accurate scores for an individual level analysis. Indeed McCoy et al. (2005a) examined the use of email in Uruguay and in the United States. They added national culture in the TAM model and they used Hofstede’s “countries scores”. The results showed that none of the initial hypotheses were supported implying for a more appropriate way to measure culture and especially individual culture. Hence, an extended TAM model including uncertainty avoidance as a cultural factor was used by Hwang (2005) in order to examine the adoption of ERP system in an organization. Hwang (2005) used uncertainty avoidance as a cultural control and perceived enjoyment as a self-control. The dimension of culture, uncertainty avoidance, was measured at an

51

individual level using the scales of Dorfman and Howell (1988). The results supported the hypothesis referring the positive effect of uncertainty avoidance on perceived ease of use.

52

5. Model5.1 Perceived UsefulnessPerceived Usefulness (PU) is one of the two constructs of the original version of TAM. Davis (1989) defined PU as “the degree to which a person believes that using a particular system would enhance his or her job performance”. In this study, the definition of PU is slightly changed as the degree to which a person believes that using internet banking will improve his or her performance on conducting banking activities. Van der Heijden (2004) notes that there are two fundamental types of motivation determining user acceptance; extrinsic and intrinsic. PU is an extrinsic type of motivation since the user is expecting a tangible outcome which is the improvement in his/her job performance. In many studies of technology acceptance, PU proved to be the most significant determinant explaining a large proportion of the variance. In particular, Younghwa (2003) conducted an extensive research about TAM and found PU to be the strongest determinant in 74 studies. Due to the improvement of performance when using internet banking it is likely that consumers’ intention to use internet banking will change thus formulating the first hypothesis.

H1: Perceived Usefulness positively affects intention of Greek consumers to use internet banking.

5.2 Perceived Ease of UsePerceived Ease of Use (PEOU) is the second core construct of the original TAM and is defined as “the degree to which a person believes that using a particular system would be free of effort” (Davis 1989). In the current study, PEOU is defined as the degree to which an individual believes that using internet banking will be free of effort. The results about PEOU are not as consistent as they are for PU. Several studies mention that the effect of PEOU diminishes

53

over time as the users become familiar with the use of the system. Nevertheless, several studies found that PEOU is a significant determinant, Younghwa (2003) found 56 studies that PEOU significantly explained individuals’ intention to use information systems. As an intrinsic motivation, PEOU is expected to be a significant determinant explaining hedonic systems. Moreover, internet-based information systems are both utilitarian and hedonic. Information systems that are easy to use and learn, seem less threatening to the individuals which is reflected in the second hypothesis.

H2a: Perceived ease of use positively affects intention of Greek consumers to use internet banking.

Moreover, PEOU found to have significant effect on PU too. Davis (1989) posits “that everything else being equal the easiest the technology is the more useful it can be”. This is a well-validated relationship which according to Younghwa (2003) has been found significant in 69 different studies. Thus, we formulate the following hypothesis.

H2b: Perceived ease of use positively affects perceived usefulness.

5.3 Computer Self-efficacySelf-efficacy is the belief that an individual is able to perform an action (Bandura 1977). The same author in particular defines computer self-efficacy “as the judgement of one’s ability to use a computer”. Computer self-efficacy was incorporated in many studies and found to be a strong determinant of perceived ease of use and of intention to use (Compeau and Higgins 1995, Hong et al. 2001, Venkatesh 2000). In the yearbook 2006-2007 of Eurostat11 there is a research where the skills of individuals between 16 and 74 years old

11 http://epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/cache/ITY_OFFPUB/KS-CD-06-001/EN/KS-CD-06-001-EN.PDF

54

are measured (Figure 6) and Greece has the last position. Thus we believe that the more e-literate an individual is the more confident he or she feels about using computer which consequently leads to less anxiety about using internet banking and thus to greater intention to use it. Furthermore, the confidence an individual feels about using computers probably will make his interaction with internet banking easier thus resulting to a feeling that using internet banking is easy. On the other hand, users who feel anxiety about computers will probably not adopt internet banking and will continue using traditional ways of conducting transactions. The following hypotheses will be examined

H3a: Computer self-efficacy positively affects perceived ease of use.H3b: Computer self-efficacy positively effects intention of Greek consumers to use internet banking.

Figure 6: Individuals' level of computer skills 2005

Source: Eurostat Yearbook 2006-2007

5.4 Facilitating ConditionsThompson et al. (1991) defined facilitating conditions as “objective factors in the environment that observers agree that make an act

55

easy to do, including the provision of computer support”. In our case, facilitating conditions refer to the existence and availability of internet connections able to facilitate the use of internet banking. Furthermore, I theorize broadband connections as the appropriate type of connection in order to conduct internet banking effectively. Goh (1995) posits that internet commerce applications such as internet banking services will become more feasible when technology infrastructure becomes easily and readily available and suggests that government plays important role. Furthermore the lack of access to computers or the Internet is identified as a possible impediment by O’Connel (1996). Facilitating conditions play an important role for the adoption of internet banking in Greece. The key figures of Eurostat for the period 2007-200812 indicates that the percentage of households in Greece that has broadband connection is only 7 percent and 18 percent has internet access through modems (dial up or ISDN). Since the same study indicates that the most common place of internet use is home we theorize that the current situation of facilitating conditions impedes the adoption of internet banking in Greece.

Figure 7 represents the percentage of internet access of households by type of connection and Figure 8 represents the most common place of internet use of the percentage of individual who accessed the Internet the last three months. Both are presented on the next page.

12 See footnote 11

Figure 7: Internet access for households, 2007 (%)

Source: Eurostat Yearbook 2007-2008(1) The categories presented are not mutually exclusive.(2) The availability of broadband is measured by the percentage of households that are connectable to an exchange that has been converted to support xDSL-technology, to a cable network upgraded for Internet traffic, or to other broadband technologies.

Figure 8: Place of Internet use, EU-27, 2007 (% of individuals who accessed the Internet during the last 3 months)

Source: Eurostat Yearbook 2007-2008

(1) The categories presented are not mutually exclusive.

Thus, we formulate the next hypothesis

H4: Facilitating conditions positively affects intention of Greek consumers to use internet banking.

5.5 Perceived Web SecurityPerceived web security was introduced by Salisbury et al. (2001) and is defined as “the extent to which one believes that the World Wide Web is secure for transmitting sensitive information”. Construct of security or privacy has been used in several studies; in particular, Cheng et al. (2006) incorporated this construct in their study in order to examine the adoption of internet banking in Hong Kong. Conducting activities like banking or shopping through the Internet have several advantages such as less time and money spend, but also there are some concerns. Since the internet eliminated the presence of the merchant or the banker, individuals may feel threaten when they have to pay money and give personal details such as credit card numbers. Security concerns are raised by incidents regarding stories about internet thefts and attacks. The most common form of fraud in the case of internet banking is phishing13. Individuals with less security concerns will prefer to use internet banking to conduct transactions, which leads to formulation of the following hypothesis.

H5: Perceived web security positively affects the intention of Greek consumers to use internet banking.

13 Phishing is a form of attack that exploits victims’ psychology. Phishing is a form of fraud that aims to obtain personal information like passwords, usernames, etc. The victims receive an email which looks like official from a legitimate business which lead to a web site where secret information is captured.

58

5.6 Uncertainty AvoidanceUncertainty avoidance refers to the extent to which individuals accept or reject uncertain and ambiguous situations and describes the tolerance that individuals exhibit in unstructured situations (Hofstede 1980). “The inclination of members of a culture to avoid uncertainty and ambiguity profoundly affects the way in which institutions are organized and managed” (Hofstede 1984). Consistent with this, it is possible that uncertainty avoidance will affect the way individuals choose to conduct their banking transactions. Information richness theory posits that “individuals choose media based on task characteristics of equivocality and ambiguity”. The first criterion for the individuals in order to choose a media is its level of information richness (Daft and Lengel 1984). The attributes that determines the richness of media are “the interactive nature of the feedback, channel type (e.g., body language, facial expression, and tone of voice), the personal quality of the source, and the ability of the interface to express linguistic innuendos” (Sproull and Kjesler 1986). According to the authors face-to-face and telephone communication are information rich channels because of the richness of the cues that are transmitted to the listener. On the other hand, Internet banking is a lean channel of conducting transactions comparing to the traditional way since there is absence of facial contact. Furthermore, social presence theory posits that “media of communication are selected for specific types of interaction, and for how well media fits the task information requirements” (Short et al. 1976). According to this theory, for sensitive tasks, media with high social presence are selected. Media, high in social presence, are face-to-face meetings and telephones, whereas e-mail and fax are low in social presence. Therefore, internet banking can be characterized as a medium that is low in social presence.

59

Individuals from countries with high uncertainty avoidance will possibly choose a medium ranking high in social presence and information richness in order to conduct their banking transactions, which are highly sensitive tasks. Many years have passed since Hofstede conducted his study and obtained countries scores but it is worth mentioning that Greece has the highest score on this dimension14, uncertainty avoidance. Maybe the scores are not completely accurate anymore but it is obvious that Greece is a country scoring high in uncertainty avoidance. Furthermore, it is a fact that banking is a sensitive task involving monetary transactions as well as personal information. Consequently, Greek consumers will choose the traditional way to conduct transactions instead of internet banking. The last hypothesis of the model is

H6: Uncertainty avoidance negatively affects the intention of Greek consumers to use internet banking.

In this study, the dependent variable is the behavioral intention of Greek consumers to use internet banking. The construct of attitude has been taken out in order to simplify the model, which is consistent with previous studies (Hong et al. 2001, Salisbury et al. 2001, and Wang et al. 2003). Furthermore, the construct actual usage was omitted because behavior intention to use is a more appropriate measure to use than actual usage in line with Agarwal and Prasad (1999) and Cheng et al. (2006). Moreover, the intention to use internet banking is more appropriate to use since the actual use of internet banking in Greece is only 12 percent, see the arguments of Cheng et al. (2006). Figure 9 presents the extended technology acceptance model that will be used in order to examine the determinants of the adoption of internet banking in Greece.

14 http://www.geert-hofstede.com/hofstede_dimensions.php

60

Figure 9: Extended technology accepted model currently used to examine the adoption of internet banking in Greece

Computer Self-Efficacy

Perceived Usefulness

Perceived Ease of use

Facilitating Conditions

Perceived Web Security

Uncertainty Avoidance

Behavioral Intention of Greek consumers to use Internet Banking

H2b

H1H2a

H3a

H3b

H4

H5

H6

61

6. Research MethodIn the following chapter, I describe the methodology followed in this study. Among the various research approaches to choose from, in this study a quantitative analysis is used. The best way to approach the problem of low adoption of internet banking by Greek consumers was to conduct a field study using surveys. In order to conduct the study I had to take into consideration the following issues: What would be the best possible way of approaching customers in order to get an adequate and relevant sample and moreover the construction of a valid research instrument able to measure customers’ perceptions on internet banking. In regards to the first step, it was decided that conducting two different studies in different environments with different participants would be useful for obtaining results. Furthermore, direct comparison of the results would be possible which might lead to valuable insights.

6.1 QuestionnairesThe basic research instrument used to collect data is the questionnaire. Since the main goal of this study is to uncover the reasons of the low use of internet banking by the Greek consumers, questionnaires were chosen to be the research instrument. There are several reasons for choosing questionnaires. Among others, the use of the questionnaire as a research instrument makes it feasible to gather a satisfactory number of responses within a limited time frame as well as gain valuable insights about users’ perceptions on internet banking. In order to create consistent and valid measurement instruments for the purpose of this study, previous questionnaires used in prior studies were examined and reviewed. (seeAppendix A for the list of questions used in the questionnaire). The following factors comprising the model are discussed in detail in the literature review.

62

The constructs Perceived Ease of Use and Perceived Usefulness are the original constructs that Davis (1989) included for their TAM model. The questions developed by Davis (1989) have been used all these years to examine different technologies leading to a robust and valid measurement scale appropriate for studying the topic at hand. The questionnaire, developed by Davis, was adapted in order to fit internet banking (Cheng et al. 2006). The construct Perceived Web Security was developed by Salisbury et al. (2001). Furthermore, the construct has been used by Cheng et al. (2006) to examine the online banking in Hong Kong. The construct was adapted for internet banking and incorporated into the study. The construct Computer Self-Efficacy was developed by Compeau and Higgins (1995b). Tan et al. (2000) incorporated this factor into their model in order to examine the adoption of internet banking. The construct Facilitating Conditions was developed by Thompson (1991). The questionnaire was built based on questions previously used and validated by other researchers (Sathye 1999, Tan et al. 2000, Pikkarainen et al. 2004).Uncertainty Avoidance was first defined by Hofstede (1980). Quintal based on Yoo and Donthu (2002) developed a scale for measuring uncertainty avoidance. The scale is adapted for the purposes of this study.

In order to measure intention to use internet banking three questions were used based on Cheng et al. (2006). As mentioned before it is justifiable to use intention to use internet banking as a dependent variable since the actual usage of the service in Greece is very low (below 15%). Moreover, Agarwal and Prasad (1999) argued that intention to use is more appropriate for a survey-based research and Cheng et al. (2006) followed the same direction. The scaled used to measure the constructs is a 7-point Likert scale for

63

each item (with 1 = strongly disagree, 2 = disagree, 3 = slightly disagree, 4 = neutral, 5 = slightly agree, 6 = agree, and 7 = strongly agree).

In total, there were 24 questions regarding that factors that affect the adoption of internet banking and 7 general demographic questions. The main goal was to keep the questionnaire easy to read and understandable by limiting the amount of questions. Furthermore, the questionnaire was kept reasonably short to be sure of a high response rate. The questionnaire was first created in English. The translation of the questionnaire was done by me. In order to ensure the validity and the correctness, I retained a certified translator (Pouliasi Amanda) who corrected the translation of the questionnaire from English into Greek which resulted in minor changes. Both English and Greek questionnaires are in theAppendix A.

6.2 First StudyIn order to conduct this study and obtain valid results the cooperation with several banks in Greece was deemed a necessity. I sought cooperation from different banks in Greece, among them are Alpha Bank, EFG Eurobank Ergasias and Marfin Egnatia. These banks were chosen because they are among the biggest banks in Greece in terms of profits, branches and employees (see Appendix B for detailed information about the banks) and provide internet banking to their customers as discussed in Chapter 3. The location of the banks and the place that the first study took place is the city of Patras in Greece. The branches of the banks are located in the centre of the city. After discussing the goals of the research with the managers, the questions that would be posed and the knowledge they can gain out of it, they were convinced to help me by giving access to their physical branches and to customers. The main goal of this action was to obtain a relevant sample, free of possible

64

biases. The random selection between bank customers was the only way to avoid a possibly biased sample selection which could influence the relevance of the study. Furthermore, direct everyday contact with customers of the bank offered valuable insights about their banking needs in general and their perceptions of internet banking.

It was in terms of a general observation interesting to see that the physical branches of the banks in Greece were full of customers every day. This was a first indication that internet banking is not a habit for Greek consumers and definitely not their preferred way of conducting transactions. Furthermore, many consumers did not have any idea pertaining to internet banking. During my visits to the banks and my interactions with the customers it was more than obvious that most of them did not have the faintest idea of the existence of this service. They did not know what they are able to do using internet banking and moreover they had no idea about the advantages and disadvantages of the service. It was more than obvious that many bank customers regardless of their age, gender or occupation were unaware of this service. The scope of this research is to examine the determinants of user adoption of internet banking.

Since there were consumers completely unaware of the existence of the service I altered the scope of the study to also include a sample of consumers that may have a higher awareness of the availability of the service. The second study was therefore conducted online.

6.3 Second StudyAfter distributing questionnaires in the banks hand by hand I conducted a second study, this time online. The main goal was to compare the two samples and to identify potential differences. The questionnaires were the same and designed online using the

65

Thesistools15, online software designed to facilitate surveys by designing and distributing questionnaires. The questionnaires this time were in English since the program does not support the Greek language.

6.4 Sample and Demographic Characteristics

6.4.1 First StudyDuring the visits to the physical bank branches seventy-seven questionnaires were filled by customers with diverse backgrounds. Seven questionnaires were deemed unusable due to unfinished answers. The demographic characteristics of the sample are presented in the Table 6.6. For the analysis, I used SPSS 16.0.

Out of the seventy respondents, the 41% belongs to the 19-30 age group and 31% are in between 31 to 45. 59% of the sample is male and 42% female. The most predominant incomes are less than 1000€ and between 1000€ and 3000€. The education level of the respondents is not so diverse since the 60% completed their bachelor degree. On the other hand, when it comes to employment 30% of the respondents are self employed, 24% private employees and 21% are civil servants.

Two major trends are noticeable when examining the sample. First of all, Table 6.7 indicates that the 60% of the respondents do not use internet banking as a way of conducting transactions. This proportion reflects the situation in Greece and the Greek banking system. The second outcome is the 15 http://www.thesistools.com/

Table 6.6: Demographics of respondentsAge

Frequency Percent<18 2 2,919-30 29 41,431-45 22 31,445-60 15 21,4>60 2 2,9Total 70 100,0

GenderFrequency Percent

Male 41 58,6Female 29 41,4Total 70 100,0

66

fact that 26% of the respondents use the online services of the bank for more than a year now. Users who tried internet banking seem to be satisfied, and continue to use the service without any concerns and conducting more than one banking action. Most of these users seem to use a combination of physical and digital banking facilities.

Moreover, 66% of the respondents that belong to the age group 19-30 do not use internet banking at all. On the other hand, most of the users belonging to the age groups 31-45 and 45-60 and that do use internet banking use this service for more than one year now. It seems that people in these age groups realize the

advantages of internet banking such as less time and effort consuming and they choose to use it. Furthermore, the education level of the internet banking users was bachelor degree or higher (except for two cases). The most common income groups of the respondents are <1000 and 1000-3000. Specifically the income 1000-3000 completes the profile of the users who use the service more than one year. Finally, most of the users who use internet banking to handle their banking transactions are using the service for more than one transaction. The most common online action is to check the account balance with 71%. 46% of the respondents use internet banking in order to transfer money, 50% choose to pay their bills online and 21% manage investments and investment portfolios.

6.4.2 Second StudyThe sample of the second study was 115 respondents. Initially 119 respondents answered the questionnaire but four answers were extracted because they were incomplete. In this study is noticeable that the 97.4% of respondents belong to second age of group (19-

Table 6.7: Use of Internet Banking

Frequency PercentI do not use it

42 60,0

<3 Months 3 4,33-6 months

2 2,9

6-12 Months

5 7,1

>12 Months

18 25,7

Total 70 100,0

67

30). The proportion of the users belong to the second age group is very high but it was a matter of luck. From the respondents, 58 were male and 57 were female. Less than 1000€ is the income of the 65% of the respondents and between 1000€ and 3000€ is the 30% of the respondents. The education level of the sample was diverse, for example, the 47% of the respondents have Master degree, 33% of the respondents completed the Bachelor degree and 16.5% finished high school. Regarding the occupations, 36.5% of the respondents are students, 26.1% are private employees, 10.4% are self-employed and 21.7% choose the option other, most of them without specifying their occupation (details are demonstrated in the table in Appendix C).

Out of the 115 respondents, the 41% do not use internet banking as a way of conducting transactions. Like in the previous sample, the next biggest proportion is the one of the long-term users. Specifically, 34% of the respondents are using internet banking for more than a year now. Although out of the 34% there is a significant difference between gender. Specifically 64% of the “long term” users are males and 36% females. So far, some meaningful outcomes can be extracted. Based on the results of the study we can notice two major groups of users. There are customers who do not use internet banking and the customers who use the service for more than a year now, implying their satisfaction.

Again, like in the previous study the users who use internet banking conduct more than one banking action. Likewise, the most common action is the check of the account balance, 79% of respondents who use the service choose to check their accounts online. The next most common action is the money transfer with 75%. Moreover, 63% of the respondents choose to pay their bills online while the management of loan and portfolios are not so common probably because of the age of the sample.

68

7. Analysis and FindingsThe following chapter describes the analyses that performed in order to get results. Factor and regression analyses were performed which allowed the confirmation or rejection of the aforementioned hypotheses.

7.1 Factor AnalysisThe factor analysis is defined as a class of procedures that are primarily used for data reduction and summarization (Malhotra & Birks, 2007). The goal of this procedure is to reduce a large amount of variables into a manageable number and explain the maximum amount of variance in the data. This is feasible by grouping the variables into specific factors, as the underlying dimensions that explain the correlations among a set of variables are named (Malhotra & Birks, 2007).

The model of this study suggests seven factors: perceived ease of use, perceived usefulness, perceived web security, computer self-efficacy, facilitating conditions, uncertainty avoidance and intention to use internet banking. Factor analysis is appropriate in order to group the research variables into factors and verify their ability to measure each dimension. The goal of the study is to examine the relationships between those factors and verify the formulated hypotheses. In this study, there are seven factors and in order to verify that the variables are measuring the right dimensions it was decided to perform seven factor analyses, one for each factor, for each study based on the structure of the questionnaire. The program used to perform all kind of analyses is SPSS 16.0 using principal component analysis.

69

7.1.1 Factor Analysis for the Perceived Ease of UseThe following factor analysis is aiming to verify that the research variables can be summarized into one factor called perceived ease of use. Before proceeding to the factor analysis of the variables measuring perceived ease of use, is essential to check the Bartlett’s test of Sphericity (p<0.05) and Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin Measure of Sampling Adequacy. The results are KMO = .865 for the first study and KMO = 0,858 for the second study which prove the appropriateness of the factor analysis. The value is considered great according to Kaiser (1974). The Varimax Rotation was not performed, since the solution cannot be rotated when only one dimension is extracted. The reliability of the factor is significantly high, Cronbach’s a = .936 and a = .928 respectively, which means that the measurement is rather consistent and the random error is low for both studies. The results of the factor analysis are demonstrated in the Table 7.8. The variance explained by this factor is considered high, 84% for the first study and 82% for the second one.Table 7.8 :Factor Loadings for Perceived Ease of Use

Study 1 Study 2

Variables Factor Communalities

Factor CommunalitiesLearning to use Internet Banking

service is easy for me 0,898 0,806 0,921 0,849I find my interaction with the use of the Internet Banking services clear and understandable

0,909 0,827 0,89 0,793It is easy for me to become skillful at the use of the Internet Banking 0,934 0,872 0,896 0,803Overall, I find the use of the Internet Banking services easy 0,931 0,867 0,922 0,85Name of Factor Perceived Ease of useReliability a = .936 a = .928% of Variance Explained 84% 82%

70

7.1.2 Factor Analysis for the Perceived UsefulnessBartlett’s test of Sphericity (p<0.05) and KMO = .714 for the first study and KMO = .74 for the second one indicate the appropriateness of factor analysis. Furthermore, the value of KMO is acceptable since all values above .5 are acceptable according to Kaiser (1974) and is considered good for both cases. The Varimax Rotation was not performed, since in the model only one dimension is extracted. The reliability of the factor is high Cronbach’s a = .92 and a = .915 respectively. The variance explained by this factor is high 84% and 86% for the first and the second study respectively.

The results of factor analysis for perceived usefulness are presented in the Table 7.9.

Table 7.9 : Factor Loadings for Perceived UsefulnessStudy 1 Study 2

Variables Factor Communalities

Factor CommunalitiesUsing the Internet Banking would

enable me to accomplish my tasks more quickly 0,936 0,875 0,919 0,844Using the Internet Banking would make it easier for me to carry out my banking tasks 0,958 0,918 0,947 0,896I would find the Internet Banking useful 0,898 0,807 0,91 0,864Name of Factor Perceived UsefulnessReliability a = .92 a = .915% of Variance Explained 84% 86%

7.1.3 Factor Analysis for Perceived Web SecurityThe Bartlett’s test of Sphericity (p<0.05) and KMO = .857 and KMO = .847 for the two studies respectively imply that factor analysis is appropriate. Like in the above case, the Varimax rotation is not applied. The reliability of the factor is considered high Cronbach’s a

71

= .96 and a = .953 and the variance explained is 89% and 88% respectively. The factor extracted is named Perceived Web Security.

The results for both studies are demonstrated in the Table 7.10

Table 7.10: Factor Loadings for Perceived Web SecurityStudy 1 Study 2

Variables Factor Communalities

Factor CommunalitiesI would feel secure sending sensitive

information across the Internet Banking

0,951 0,905 0,921 0,849Internet Banking is a secure means through which to send sensitive information 0,928 0,862 0,95 0,902I would feel totally safe providing sensitive information about myself over Internet Banking 0,964 0,929 0,927 0,859Overall, Internet Banking is a safe place to transmit sensitive 0,935 0,874 0,947 0,896Name of Factor Perceived Web SecurityReliability a = .96 a = .953% of Variance Explained 89% 88%

72

7.1.4 Factor Analysis for Computer Self-EfficacyThe Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin Measure is .669 for the first study and .769 for the second one and the Bartlett’s test of Sphericity (p<0.05) indicate the appropriateness of factor analysis. Varimax rotation is not performed since only one dimension is extracted and the solution cannot be rotated. The reliability of the factor Cornbach’s a = .8 and .825 respectively indicate good reliability. The factor was named computer self-efficacy and the total variance explained is 64% in the first study and 66% in the second one.

The results of the factor analysis are demonstrated in the Table 7.11

Table 7.11: Factor Loadings for Computer Self-EfficacyStudy 1 Study 2

Variables Factor Communalities

Factor CommunalitiesIf I have only the online instructions

for reference 0,682 0,466 0,732 0,537Even if there is no one around me to show me 0,88 0,774 0,882 0,778Even if I have never used such a system before 0,872 0,76 0,887 0,787If I have just seen someone else using it before trying it myself 0,75 0,563 0,726 0,527Name of Factor Perceived Computer Self-EfficacyReliability a = .8 a = .825% of Variance Explained 64% 66%

73

7.1.5 Factor Analysis for Facilitating ConditionsThe reliability of the factor is Cronabach’s a = .688 for the first study and a = .74 for the second one. Although in the reliability analysis is noticeable that the variable “Given the resources it takes to use Internet Banking it would be easy for me to use it” does not fit in the model. The specific variable does not correlate adequately with the scale. Running a reliability analysis with SPSS there is an option “Alpha If Item Is Deleted” which represents the values of the overall alpha if a specific item is deleted. In general, no big changes in the alphas’ values have been noticed. Although in this case the value is .904 for the first case which is significantly higher than the value we had before indicating better reliability of the scale if we exclude the first variable. Likewise, in the second study if we check the “Alpha if Item Deleted” column we notice a raise in the reliability of the measurement scale from a = .740 to a = .747. Therefore is advisable not to include this variable in the factor analysis for both studies. The Bartlett’s test of Sphericity (p<0.05) and KMO = .50 for both studies indicates the use of factor analysis. The value of KMO is exactly in the threshold of the acceptable values. The Cronbach’s a = .904 is significantly high and indicates great reliability and assures the consistency of the measurement. For the second study Cronbach’s a = 747 is also high. Varimax rotation is not applied since only one dimension is extracted. The factor is named facilitating conditions and the total variance explained is 91% and 80% respectively. The results of the factor analysis are demonstrated in the Table 7.12

Table 7.12: Factor Loadings for Facilitating ConditionsStudy 1 Study 2

Variables Factor Communalities

Factor Communalities

74

Given the resources it takes to use Internet Banking it would be easy for me to use itFaster internet access speed is important for Internet Banking understandable

0,955 0,913 0,897 0,805Reliable internet connection is important for Internet Banking 0,955 0,913 0,897 0,805Name of Factor Perceived Facilitating ConditionsReliability a = .904 a = .747% of Variance Explained 91% 80%

7.1.6 Factor analysis for Uncertainty AvoidanceBartlett’s test of Sphericity (p<0.05) and KMO = 0,762 for the first study, which is considered good value and KMO = .702 (slightly above the mediocre value but is considered good) indicates that factor analysis should be conducted. The reliability analysis resulted in a Cronbach’s a = .931 and a = 869 respectively indicating good internal consistency for both studies. The total variance explained by the factor is 88% and 80% respectively and is considered high.

The results are demonstrated in the Table 7.13.

Table 7.13: Factor Loadings for Uncertainty AvoidanceStudy 1 Study 2

Variables Factor Communalities

Factor CommunalitiesIt is important to have instructions

spelled out in detail so that I’m always know what I am expected to do when I am conducting transactions

0,945 0,894 0,849 0,722

75

It is important to closely follow instructions and procedures when I am conducting transactions understandable 0,941 0,885 0,933 0,871Instructions for conducting transactions are important 0,926 0,858 0,908 0,823Name of Factor Uncertainty AvoidanceReliability a = .931 a = .869% of Variance Explained 88% 80%

7.1.7 Factor Analysis for Intention to Use Internet BankingThe last factor analysis is for the intention to use internet banking which is the dependent variable in the conceptual model. Bartlett’s test of Sphericity (p<0.05) and KMO = .77 regarding the first study and KMO = .731 regarding the second one, were used in order to allow the use of factor analysis. The scale has high internal consistency for both studies with the Cronbach’s a = .91 and a = .946 respectively. Varimax rotation was not applied, since only one component was extracted. The total variance explained is considered high (91% and 90% respectively).

In the Table 7.14 the results of the analysis are demonstrated. Table 7.14: Factor Loadings for Intention to Use Internet Banking

Study 1 Study 2

Variables Factor Communalities

Factor Communalities

76

I would use Internet Banking for my needs 0,95 0,903 0,915 0,837Using Internet Banking for handling my banking transactions is something I would do 0,947 0,897 0,967 0,934I would see myself using the Internet Banking for handling my banking transactions 0,961 0,924 0,967 0,936Name of Factor Intention to Use Internet BankingReliability a = .949 a = .946% of Variance Explained 91% 90%

7.1.8 Conclusions of Factor AnalysesThe factor analyses confirmed the form of seven dimensions; perceived ease of use, perceived usefulness, perceived web security, computer self-efficacy, facilitating conditions, uncertainty avoidance and intention to use internet banking. As indicated by the reliability tests all the dimensions are reliable which gives us the opportunity to continue with the regression analyses in order to test the formed hypotheses. We have to notice here that it was deemed necessary to exclude the first variable of the facilitating conditions factor.

7.2 Regression AnalysesThe analysis chosen for this study is regression analysis. Regression analysis according to Malhotra & Birks (2007) is a statistical process for analyzing associative relationships between a metric-dependent variable and one or more independent variables. According to the same authors, regression analysis is able not only to indicate whether or not there are relationships between the variables, but also the strength of the relationships.

77

7.2.1 First Study Dependent variable: Intention to use internet banking

Linear regression was conducted in order to test the hypotheses H1, H2a, H3b, H4, H5, H6 having intention of Greek consumers to use internet banking as dependent variable and perceived ease of use, perceived usefulness, perceived web security, computer self-efficacy, facilitating conditions and uncertainty avoidance as independent variables.

Table 7.15: Regression analysis for Intention to use internet bankingUnstandardized

CoefficientsStandardize

d Coefficientsβ Std. error Beta t Sign. VIF

Constant 5,532E-17

,079 ,000 1,000

Perceived Ease of Use

,280 ,079 ,280 2,388 ,02 2,156

Perceived Usefulness

,333 ,121 ,333 2,748 ,00 2,300

Perceived Web Security

,188 ,097 ,188 1,939 ,05 1,480

Computer Self-Efficacy

,097 ,102 ,097 ,950 ,34 1,624

Facilitating Conditions

,040 ,097 ,040 ,411 ,68 1,461

Uncertainty Avoidance

-,156 ,088 -,156 -1,763

,08 1,221

The results of the analysis indicate that the model explain 59.8% of the variance of intention to use internet banking (R² = 0.598). The F-ratio, represents the improvement of fitting the regression model compared to the inaccuracy that still exists in the model, is F = 15,634 with p < .05.

78

Table 7.15 demonstrates the results of the regression analysis. Perceived ease of use, Perceived Usefulness, Perceived Web Security and Uncertainty avoidance along with the constant effect adequately explain the variance of the dependent variable. To detect potential correlations between predictor variables (multicollinearity), which could make interpretation less clear, and cause imprecise estimates, collinearity statistics were checked: since the tolerance of all independent variables was greater than 0.10 and VIF < 10, the model appeared to be clear from multicollinearity problems.

In regression analysis, the model takes the form of an equation containing a coefficient β for each predictor. These coefficients express the relationship between the independent and dependent variable. Specifically the partial regression coefficient β of an independent variable X symbolizes the expected change in the dependent variable when X is changed by one unit and all the rest independent variables are held constant. Therefore, all the variables except for Uncertainty Avoidance affect the dependent positively. Uncertainty avoidance with β = - 0.0156 affects the intention to use internet banking negatively.

Looking at the β values, Perceived usefulness (β = .333) has the strongest positive effect on the dependent among the independent variables. The next most significant independent variable is perceived ease of use (β = .280) and perceived web security (β = .188). On the other hand uncertainty avoidance found to have a strong negative effect in the dependent variable (β = -.156) in significance level .10.

Hypotheses Testing The results of the analysis allow the confirmation of the hypothesis H2a. The hypothesis suggests that Perceived Ease of Use positively

79

affect the intention to use internet banking. As one of the core constructs of the original TAM model found to be a significant determinant of the adoption of internet banking consistent with previous studies (Pikkarainen et al. 2004). That means that the easier the system is the more users intend to use it as a way of conducting transactions.

Perceived Usefulness, the other core construct of TAM found to have the most significant effect on the dependent variable. The results confirm the hypothesis H1 which is consistent with previous studies. Specifically perceived usefulness, one of the salient beliefs of the original TAM, was found to be more significant than PEOU like in previous studies (Davis, 1989; Davis et al., 1989, Pikkarainen et al. 2004, Celic 2008).

Perceived Web Security proved to have a slight impact on the dependent variable. Therefore, the hypothesis H5 is confirmed. Consistent with previous studies (Cheng et al. 2006) the factor proved to have positive impact on the intention to use the service. Despite all the advantages of internet and internet banking there are still issues concerning security and safety especially when users perform actions like online banking which entail exchange of sensitive information.

The factor Uncertainty Avoidance found to have negative impact on the dependent variable. We have to notice here that the factor is not significant in .05 level of significance but in .10. As an addition to the original TAM Uncertainty Avoidance represents the differences between cultures and especially the tense to avoid uncertain situations, is used for the first time to examine the adoption of internet banking. Therefore, for Greek culture the factor as correctly hypothesized impede the adoption of the internet banking. Maybe the relatively small sample is the cause of the high

80

p-value. Since it can be accepted in significance level .10 the confirmation of the H6 hypothesis is allowed.

Finally, the hypotheses H3b and H4 are rejected. Computer Self-Efficacy found to have no significance impact on the intention to use internet banking maybe because users are confident about their computer skills or because banks created their web sites and provide internet banking in a way that low requirements of computer skills are needed in order to perform online banking. As far as the Facilitating Conditions factor, was proved to have no significant influence on the dependent variable, with possible reason the high rate of broadband connections of the sample.

Dependent variable: Perceived Ease of Use

In order to test the Hypothesis H3a the dependent variable is Perceived ease of Use and the independent Computer Self-Efficacy. In this regression model, there is only one independent variable, so multicollinearity is not present (VIF < 10).

Computer self-efficacy explains 28.8% of the variance of perceived ease of use. The F test shows that the effect of the independent variable on perceived ease of use is significant (F = 23.3, p < .05). Table 7.16 demonstrates the results of the regression analysis. The factor Computer self-efficacy significantly affects perceived ease of use, β = .546 with p < .01.

Table 7.16: Regression analysis for perceived ease of useUnstandardized

CoefficientsStandardize

d Coefficientsβ Std. error Beta t Sign. VIF

Constant -6,124E-17

,101 ,000 1,000

Computer Self-Efficacy

,546 ,102 ,546 5,371 ,000 1,000

81

The value of β indicates the positive effect of the factor on the dependent variable allowing the confirmation of the H3a hypothesis. Consistent with previous studies (Venkatesh and Davis 1996, Agarwal et al. 2000, Venkatesh 2000, Hong et al. 2001) users who have higher self-efficacy about computer are more likely to find the interaction with the internet banking service easier.

Dependent variable: Perceived usefulness

The last regression analysis for the first study has perceived usefulness as a dependent variable and perceived ease of use as an independent. In this regression model, there is only one independent variable, so multicollinearity is not present (VIF < 10).

Table 7.17: Regression analysis for perceived usefulnessUnstandardized

CoefficientsStandardize

d Coefficientsβ Std. error Beta t Sign. VIF

Constant -5,026E-17

,087 ,000 1,000

Perceived ease of use

,687 ,088 ,687 7,806 ,000 1,000

Perceived ease of use explains 47% of the variance. According to the Table 7.17 the linear relationship between the two variables is significant (F = 60.93 p < .05). Perceived ease of use has a significant impact on perceived usefulness (t = 7.8, p < .05) allowing the confirmation of the hypothesis H2b which is consistent with previous studies (Suh and Han 2002, Celic 2008).

7.2.2 Second Study Dependent variable: Intention to use internet banking

The same steps were followed for the second study. First, a regression analysis was performed with intention to use internet

82

banking as a dependent variable and perceived ease of use, perceived usefulness, perceived web security, computer self-efficacy, facilitating conditions and uncertainty avoidance as independent variables. The results of the analysis are shown in the Table 7.18 on the following page.Collinearity diagnostics were provided by SPSS in order to check whether there are multicollinearity problems in the model. Since the tolerance of all independent variables was greater than 0.10 and VIF < 10 we assume that there is not such a problem.

Table 7.18: Regression analysis for Intention to use internet bankingUnstandardized

CoefficientsStandardize

d β Std. error Beta t Sign. VIF

Constant 4,703E-17

,064 ,000 1,000

Perceived Ease of Use

,221 ,094 ,221 2,352 ,021 2,169

Perceived Usefulness

,218 ,099 ,218 2,206 ,030 2,407

Perceived Web Security

,262 ,078 ,262 3,354 ,001 1,496

Computer Self-Efficacy

,191 ,080 ,191 2,379 ,019 1,577

Facilitating Conditions

-,047 ,071 -,047 -,660 ,511 1,248

Uncertainty Avoidance

,159 ,074 ,159 2,143 ,034 1,346

83

R² measures how much of the variability of the dependent variable is expressed by the predictors. In this model R² = .560 expressing a good fit of the model. Moreover, the F test shows that the effect of the independents variables on the dependent is significant (F = 23, p < .05).

Hypotheses testingThe interpretation of the results of the model will help us to accept or reject the aforementioned hypotheses. Looking at the β values is noticeable that like in the first study facilitating conditions is not a significant predictor (β = -.047, p > .05). Hence, we have to reject the hypothesis H4. In this model the most significant predictor is perceived web security (β = .262, p < 0.05) confirming the hypothesis H5. Perceived ease of use also proved to positively affect the dependent variable (β = .221, p < .05) being the second most important predictor. Therefore, like in the first study hypothesis H2a is being accepted.

Perceived ease of use, which in the first study was the most important predictor, now is the third. Nevertheless, it still has a significant positive effect on the dependent variable (β = .221, p < .05). Therefore, the hypothesis H1 is accepted.

Unlike the first study but consistent with previous studies (Vijayasarathy L. 2004) computer self-efficacy proved to have a positive effect on the intention to use internet banking (β = .191, p < .05). It seems that as logic implies the more confident is the user for his computer skill the more likely is to use the internet banking service. Therefore, the hypothesis H3b is accepted.

Finally, we have to reject the hypothesis H6. Unlike the first study, uncertainty avoidance seems to affect positively the intention to use

84

internet banking. This might happen because of the age of the sample. Particularly since the dominant age group is the group from 19 to 30 it is possible that in these ages, users are used to online activity, online shopping and they might perform other monetary actions through the internet. Compared to older ages “young” users are more e-literate, they conduct transactions online more often, they spend money in a faceless market, and even if they do not, they are not possessed by the need of face-to-face contact and clearly spelled instructions.

Dependent variable: perceived ease of useIn order to examine the hypothesis H3a we use perceived ease of use as dependent variable and computer self-efficacy as independent. Since there is only one independent variable there are multicollinearity problems VIF < 10. The results of the analysis are demonstrated in the Table 7.19.

Table 7.19: Regression analysis for perceived ease of useUnstandardized

CoefficientsStandardize

d Coefficientsβ Std. error Beta t Sign. VIF

Constant 1,187E-16

,080 ,000 1,000

Computer Self-Efficacy

,519 ,080 ,519 6,447 ,000 1,000

First, the variance explained by the independent variable is 27%. F test shows that the effect of computer self-efficacy is significant (F = 41.6, p < .05). The coefficient β expresses the nature of influence of the independent variable on the dependent. In this case β = .519, p < .05 indicates that computer self-efficacy positively and significantly affects perceived ease of use. Therefore, H3a is accepted.

85

Dependent variable: Perceived usefulness

Like in the first study in order to examine the hypothesis H2b a regression analysis is performed. Perceived usefulness is the dependent variable and perceived ease of use the independent. Having only one independent variable there is no multicollinearity problems. The variation explained by the independent is significantly high (R² = 66%). The effect of perceived on use on perceived usefulness is significantly is expressed by the F-test, F = 88.3 and p < .05. In the Table 7.20 the results of analysis are presented.

Table 7.20: Regression analysis for perceived usefulnessUnstandardized Coefficients

Standardized

β Std. error Beta t Sign. VIFConstant -4,942E-

17,070 ,000 1,000

Perceived Ease of Use

,662 ,070 ,662 9,396 ,000 1,000

The results indicate that perceived ease of use affects positively perceived usefulness (β = .662). Moreover t = 9.396 p < .05 indicates the strong effect between the two variables. Therefore, the hypothesis H2b is accepted.

7.2.3 Conclusions of regression analysesThe goal of the regressions analyses was to uncover the underlying effects of the variables and further confirm or reject the hypotheses. To sum up, the results of the regressions regarding the hypotheses are demonstrated in the Table 7.21

Table 7.21: Hypotheses overviewStudy1 Study 2

Accepted hypotheses H1, H2a, H2b, H3a, H5, H6

H1, H2a, H2b, H3a, H3b, H5

86

Rejected hypotheses H3b, H4 H4, H6

87

8. Conclusions

8.1 DiscussionAfter reviewing an extensive part of the literature about user acceptance of information systems, we formulated a model which was deemed necessary for Greece. Extending the TAM model by adding, perceived web security, computer self-efficacy, facilitating conditions and uncertainty avoidance, to the two salient beliefs of TAM; perceived ease of use and perceived usefulness I managed to build a model able to examine the adoption of internet banking in Greece. The additional constructs of the model were chosen based on the literature of the adoption of information systems and based on the potential problems that exist in Greece. Two different studies were conducted in order to test the hypothesized model. The studies proved the ability of the extended TAM model to examine the adoption of the internet banking by the Greek consumers. The studies that are described in Chapter 6 had as a primary goal to uncover potential differences and similarities between customers’ intentions and perceptions. The following factors found to affect positively the intention to use internet banking; perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, perceived web security in both studies. Bank consumers intend to adopt the service partially motivated by the feeling of usefulness. The more useful the service is for conducting their bank transactions the more possible is to adopt the service.

Ease of use is also very important predictor in both studies indicating that besides the usefulness of the service the customers still need an easy to use web site where effortless can conduct their transactions. Since the internet impinged into our lives and the terms of e-commerce and e-banking appeared, security is one of the

primary concerns of consumers and the top challenge for the service providers. Particularly the studies indicated that the more secure they feel the web is for exchanging sensitive information like banking details, the more possible is to adopt internet banking. The first study showed a slight impact on the adoption but in the second study, it was the strongest determinant. Undoubtedly is a matter that the banks should pay attention to if they want internet banking to be competitive. Furthermore, in both studies perceived ease of use found to have indirect effect on perceived usefulness implying that the easier the use is the more useful is for the customers.

The factor computer self-efficacy has contradictory results. Specifically in the first study was found insignificant whereas in the second study found to have a slight positive effect on the intention to use the service. Maybe this is a contradiction caused by the difference of age in the sample. In both cases though, it was proved that the more confident someone feels about his computer skills the easier the handling of the service is.

Facilitating conditions proved to be insignificant in both studies. The continuously growing number of fast and reliable internet connections was obvious in the respondents and probably is the reason of the insignificance. Almost all the respondents had internet connection able to handle the demands of online banking. The present thesis presents studies from which the first one was conducted in a major city of Greece, Patras, and the second through the World Wide Web. An expanded study including remote areas of Greece and smaller cities may indicate the problem that at the beginning we hypothesized to be an impediment.

Last but not least the factor of culture. In this thesis, it was the first time that culture is included as a factor that affects the adoption of

89

the internet banking. Culture, can be expressed in four dimensions defined by Hofstede (1980) and they are mentioned in detail in Chapter 3. In this study, the factor uncertainty avoidance was incorporated into the study expressing the inclination of Greeks to avoid a new, unfamiliar, faceless delivery channel for something as important as the banking transactions. In fact, uncertainty avoidance found to have a negative effect in the first study where as in the second study found to have a positive effect. Although in the second study the sample belongs to the age group 19-30 which may affect the outcome. Particularly the psychology of this age group may differentiate the results since they are more e-literate and willing to accept innovative ideas than people who belong to greater age groups.

8.2 Research QuestionsThe research questions formulated at the beginning can now be answered.

Which are determinants of consumers’ adoption of internet banking in Greece?It became clear through the analyses that the major determinants of the adoption of internet banking by the Greek consumers are perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, perceived web security, computer self-efficacy and uncertainty avoidance. We have to notice here that further research is needed especially for the last two factors which presented contradictory results in the two studies.

Is the culture of Greece a determinant for the adoption of internet banking?This is the first time that a cultural factor is incorporated into the TAM model in order to examine the users’ acceptance of internet banking. The results allow us to answer that the culture in Greece is a determinant of the adoption and especially with negative

90

influence. In the first study uncertainty avoidance found to have a negative effect in the intention to use internet banking. Nevertheless, additional research is needed since the results of the second study con to our hypothesis showed that uncertainty avoidance has a positive effect. However, since the major age group of the respondents in the second study is the second (19-30), I propose that there is a need for further research since this age group can exhibit different mentality and psychology than the rest of the age groups.

Which actions should be taken from Greek banks in order to promote the use of internet banking?Internet banking is an alternative delivery channel for banks which offers plenty of advantages. One of the main goals of this study is to examine the adoption of the internet banking by the Greeks consumers and based on the results to provide ideas and advice for more successful implementation of the service.

The general feeling obtained from this study was the ignorance of the product. Particularly, many customers of the banks were not aware of the existence of the internet banking. Wider publicity for the product is deemed necessary and can be achieved in many ways. Banks should inform the customers about this innovative service underlying the benefits of using it. Such actions are quite easy and can be initiated by mass marketing in the physical branches using posters, flyers and stands. Separate department of internet banking is necessary for handling every related aspect. The use of internet banking should be encouraged and promoted by the banks, for example, when a new customer opens an account immediately the clerk of the bank should inform him about this service and its benefits, give him informative and useful guidebooks and maybe a live demonstration of the service. Furthermore, the

91

promotion of the service should exist outside of the banks too, through advertisements, kiosks and leaflets banks can popularize the service.

Banks should further segment their customers and implement marketing approaches for each target group for more effective promotion. Personalized marketing will bring better results since there are different target groups with different needs and demands and consequently need different approaches. For example, different approach should be followed for young users which might be easier to convince them and different approach for relatively old users. Of course, in order to make internet banking an established way of conducting transactions the banks should first aim to the easiest target group and then expand their actions to the rest.

Besides the promotion, banks should also emphasize in the service itself. The study showed that consumers seek for usefulness an ease of use. The content of the service is one of most important values that internet banking offers. The value that offers to the customer is increased by a complete pack of features. Banks should provide useful features which facilitate customers to perform their banking duties, timely and useful information about what customers perceive as important like stock market. Every action carried out in the physical branch of the bank should be also available online.

Customers besides usefulness like also the ease of use. It is of paramount importance that the use of the service should be as easy as possible. First, it is important to avoid technical details which are difficult to understand by users and keep the content as simple as possible. Things that can increase ease of use are nice layout, interactive content, proper organization of the web site, fast access and download speed. The web site of the bank should be familiar for people without technical knowledge and experience of internet use.

92

Security of information is a very important aspect as indicated also in the study. It is obvious that the Greek banks are trying to offer the highest security to the customers. It is also important though to emphasize these aspects to the customers and assure them about their safety. During the last years, some sorely intrusion incidents happened which undermine the status of the service and cause fear and mistrust to the consumers. Banks can offer training courses and clearly spelled advice in person or online to the customers for the better confrontation of such kind of incidents.

Banks in order to gain more customers can educate its users about the use of the service and the use of computers in general. Customers able to handle and operate computers found to be more willing to use internet banking according to the study. Training courses, live demonstrations, demo videos online which explain every aspect of the service and documented guidelines with instructions can help banks educate their customers.

Greek consumers do not easily trust a faceless medium like internet. A relatively new technology like the Internet is difficult to be accepted by many people. Moreover, when it includes exchange of sensitive information and monetary transactions the gain of trust becomes more difficult and time consuming. Greek people are used to conduct transactions using the physical branches where they have face-to-face contact with the teller, or other employees. They need clearly specified instructions by a physical person who trust. Banks should eliminate this attitude, dispel fears about internet banking, eliminate risks and convince consumers about the safety of the mean. They have to assure the customers about the confidentiality and integrity of internet banking. Thorough discussions with consumers about their doubts and fears, explaining

93

every detail and enumerating the benefits of service is considered appropriate.

Why the adoption of internet banking is limited in Greece comparing to other European countries?Internet banking in Greece is still in the infancy phase. Actions have been taken by the banks but still the numbers indicate that the use of the service in Greece is far behind the use compared to other European countries. The current study sheds some light on this problem. Greek consumers seem not to adopt internet banking because of several reasons. Security seems to be an important impediment on the intention to use the service. The process of internet banking entails the exchange of sensitive information like account details and has to do with monetary actions. Consequently these characteristics engender uncertainty, mistrust and fear about the security of internet banking and in combination with some aspects of the Greek culture the feeling is accentuated. Greek temperament impedes the use of innovations like internet banking by forming defensive beliefs and views about unaccustomed, unfamiliar and potentially risky processes. Furthermore, I believe that the use of internet banking is limited because of the lack of awareness. Despite the efforts made by the banks to offer e-banking services of high quality, their marketing is not adequate.

8.3 LimitationsThe current study has the following limitations. First of all, the sample of the study is not big enough to allow full generalization of the results. The size of the sample is only 185 respondents for both studies. Further research can be conducted in closer cooperation with the banks resulting to a bigger sample thus allowing the extraction of results that represent Greek population in total.

94

The fact that the studies were conducted either in a major city in Greece or using the World Wide Web may affect the results, consequently the generalization of the results may not be wide acceptable. There are different territories in Greece exhibiting different problems, like remote areas without reliable internet connections which might require different kind of approaches. Furthermore, the factor facilitating conditions may be important in studies conducted in different cities in Greece and worth of further examination.

The construct attitude and actual use were not included in the final model for different reasons each (see Chapter 5). Future research may consider include these factors into the model. Furthermore, in the first study the factor “uncertainty avoidance” was found significant at the 0.1 significance level, which in general is acceptable but it should be mentioned

8.4 Suggestions for Future ResearchFuture research can widen the scope of the research and include the factor product awareness. Product awareness and information available on consumers’ hands about the service should have a positive effect on the intention to use internet banking.

Future research can deepen on the effects of other variables on the adoption to use internet banking. Research can be conducted in order to clarify potential effects of age and gender. Future research can further segment the customers in a longitudinal study based on their time of using the service. Non-adopters, new-users, users who start using it regularly and users who rely exclusively on internet banking for conducting their banking transactions are some of the existing target groups. The needs and demands of these groups are different and in order to achieve a successful implementation of internet banking it is essential to have deeper knowledge.

95

Future research can focus on the cultural factor and clarify its role in the adoption of new technologies. Especially in Greece researchers can break down the cultural factor to smaller and clearly specified uncertainties that customers face, like the absence of physical person. The cultural factor needs further examination, in order to assure the significance of the factor for Greece a comparative study is deemed necessary. The incorporation of the cultural factor into the models that examine internet banking in other countries can point out potential differences and assure its significance for explaining the adoption of internet banking by Greek consumers.

Furthermore, a study that examines potential relations between internet banking and the costs of the banks would be of great interest for the banks. Specifically, future research can be conducted and examine the costs of the banks since the first appearance of internet banking in Greece. This may lead to useful outcomes giving insights about the relation between the costs and the number of branches or the number of employees resulting from the implementation of internet banking. The implementation of internet banking and its use as a distribution channel consequence to economic advantages which have to be examined.

8.5 ConclusionThe topic of the current thesis is the adoption of internet banking by the Greek consumers. The use of the specific service in Greece is very low despite the efforts of the banks to offer high quality services to their customers. Specifically Greece appears in the last positions in the relevant ranking tables (are demonstrated in the introduction). Since we identified the problem the next step was to perform a thorough review of the relevant literature. A great amount

96

of literature about the acceptance of information systems from users’ perspective is reviewed and theoretically justified the choice of TAM model. The model that was used for this study is an extended TAM model including four more factors apart from the two salient beliefs of TAM. The contribution to the literature is the inclusion of culture as a potential factor and how it effects consumers’ perceptions towards the use of e-banking. Two studies were conducted, the first one took place in the physical branches of the banks and the second one was conducted online. The results proved the ability of the extended TAM model to examine the adoption of this technology. The most important factors proved to be perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use and perceived web security. In the second study computer self-efficacy found to be significant determinant too. The cultural factor proved to affect the behavioral intention negatively in the first study. On the other hand, facilitating conditions found to be insignificant in both studies. The results give an idea to the banks of what users think as important and necessary. Through this study, we hope to help banks to apprehend customers’ needs, fears and concerns and by implementing the right strategies to accelerate the rate of adoption of internet banking.

97

Appendix A

English Questionnaire

Part AI. Demographic characteristics of the respondent (Please circle your choice

of answer)

Please indicate your gender: ___Male ___Female

Please indicate the age group you belong to:

<18 19-30 31-45 45-60 >60

What is the highest level of education you have completed?

Primary school

Secondary school

High school Bachelor’s Degree

Master’s degree

PHD

What is your current profession?

Student Private Employee

Civil servant

Self Employed

Technician Retiree Other (Please specify

What is your average monthly income? 

<1000€ 1000-3000€ 3000-6000€ >6000€

II. Internet and Internet Banking usage

1. I have access to the Internet: __No __At home __At work

2. If you have access to the Internet at home, what kind of internet connection do you have? __Dial-up __Broadband __Other

3. Months using Internet Banking:

98

I do not use it <3 Months 3-6 months 6-12 Months >12 Months

4. If you use Internet Banking please indicate what for (you can choose more than one)

Account balance

Transfer money

Bill payment

Stock market

Loan Other

Please circle your choice of answer

Strongly disagree

Neutral Strongly agree

5. I use the Internet frequently 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

6. I use Internet Banking frequently 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

7. Besides Internet Banking i use frequently other banking channels (ATM, Branch, Phone banking)

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

Part BPlease circle your choice of answer

Strongly disagree

Neutral Strongly agree

Perceived Ease of Use8. Learning to use Internet Banking service is

easy for me1 2 3 4 5 6 7

9. I find my interaction with the use of the Internet Banking services clear and understandable

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

10. It is easy for me to become skillful at the use of the

Internet Banking services

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

11.Overall, I find the use of the Internet Banking services easy

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

Perceived Usefulness

12.Using the Internet Banking would enable me to accomplish my tasks more quickly

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

Strongly Neutral Strongly agree

99

disagree

13.Using the Internet Banking would make it easier for me to carry out my banking tasks

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

14.I would find the Internet Banking useful 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

Perceived Web Security

15.I would feel secure sending sensitive information across the Internet Banking

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

16. Internet Banking is a secure means through which to send sensitive information

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

17.I would feel totally safe providing sensitive information about myself over Internet Banking

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

18.Overall, Internet Banking is a safe place to transmit sensitive information

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

Computer Self-Efficacy

I am confident of using Internet Banking …19. If I have only the online instructions for

reference1 2 3 4 5 6 7

20. Even if there is no one around me to show me

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

21. Even if I have never used such a system before

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

22. If I have just seen someone else using it before trying it myself

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

Facilitating Conditions

23. Given the resources it takes to use Internet Banking it would be easy for me to use it

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

24. Faster internet access speed is important for Internet Banking

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

Strongly disagree

Neutral Strongly agree

100

25. Reliable internet connection is important for Internet Banking

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

Uncertainty Avoidance

26. It is important to have instructions spelled out in detail so that I’m always know what I am expected to do when I am conducting transactions

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

27. It is important to closely follow instructions and procedures when I am conducting transactions

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

28. Instructions for conducting transactions are important

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

Intention to use Internet Banking

29. I would use Internet Banking for my needs

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

30. Using Internet Banking for handling my banking transactions is something I would do

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

31. I would see myself using the Internet Banking for handling my banking transactions

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

Greek Questionnaire

Μέρος A

101

III. Βιογραφικά Στοιχεία (Παρακαλώ συμπληρώστε την απάντησή σας)

Φύλο: ___Άνδρας ___Γυναίκα

Σε ποιά απο τις παρακάτω ηλικιακές ομάδες ανήκετε;

<18 19-30 31-45 45-60 >60

Μορφωτικό επίπεδο:

Δημοτικό Γυμνάσιο Λύκειο ή Ι.Ε.Κ

ΑΕΙ/ΤΕΙ Μεταπτυχιακό Διδακτορικό

Επάγγελμα:

Μαθη-τής/Φοι-τητής

Ιδιωτικός Υπάλλη-λος

Δημόσιος Υπάλλη-λος

Ελεύθε-ρoς Επα-γγελμα-τίας

Technician Συνταξι-ούχος

Άλλο (Διευκρινίστε)

Παρακαλώ επιλέξτε το μηνιαίο εισόδημα σας? 

<1000€ 1000-3000€ 3000-6000€ >6000€

IV. Στοιχεία για τη χρήση του διαδικτύου και του Internet Banking Παρακαλώ συμπληρώστε την απάντησή σας

32. Έχω πρόσβαση στο διαδίκτυο: __Όχι __Ναι

33. Εάν απαντήσατε ναι στην προηγούμενη ερώτηση, τι είδους σύνδεση διαθέτετε? __Dial-up __Broadband __Other

34. Ποσους μήνες χρησιμοποιέιτε το Internet Banking περίπου;

Δεν τo χρησιμοποιώ

<3 Μήνες 3-6 Μήνες 6-12 Μήνες >12 Μήνες

35. Προσδιορίστε για ποιο λόγο χρησιμοποιείτε το Internet Banking (Μπορείτε να διαλέξετε περισσότερους απο ένα)

102

Υπόλοιπα και τις κινήσεις λογαριασμών

Μεταφορές κεφαλαίων

Πληρωμή οφειλών

Διαχείρηση του χαρτοφυλακίου

Διαχείρηση δανείων

Άλλο

Παρακαλώ κυκλώστε την απάντηση σας

Διαφωνώ απόλυτα

Ουδέ-τερο

Συμφωνώ απόλυτα

36. Χρησιμοποιώ συχνά το Διαδίκτυο 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

37. Χρησιμοποιώ συχνά το Internet Banking 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

38. Εκτός απο το Internet Banking χρησιμοποιώ επίσης (ATM, Κατάστημα, Phone banking)

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

Μερος ΒΠαρακαλώ κυκλώστε την απάντηση σας

Διαφωνώ απόλυτα

Ουδέ-τερο

Συμφωνώ απόλυτα

Αντιλαμβανόμενη Ευκολία Χρήσης39. Είναι εύκολο για μενα να μάθω να

χρησιμοποιώ τις υπηρεσίες του internet banking

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

40. Βρίσκω την αλληλεπίδρασή μου με τις υπηρεσίες του Internet Banking σαφή και κατανοητή

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

41. Είναι εύκολο για μένα να γίνω επιδέξιος με τη χρήση του Internet Banking

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

Διαφωνώ απόλυτα

Ουδέ-τερο

Συμφωνώ απόλυτα

103

42.Συνολικά, βρίσκω τη χρήση του Internet Banking εύκολη

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

Αντιλαμβανόμενη Χρησιμότητα

43.Χρησιμοποιώντας το Internet Banking διεκπαιρεώνω τις τραπεζικές μου υποχρεώσεις πιο γρήγορα

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

44.Χρησιμοποιώντας το Internet Banking διεκπαιρεώνω τις τραπεζικές μου υποχρεώσεις πιο εύκολα

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

45.Πιστεύω πως το Internet Banking είναι χρήσιμο

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

Αντιλαμβανόμενη Ασφάλεια

46.Αισθάνομαι ασφαλής όταν στέλνω ευαίσθητες πληροφορίες χρησιμοποιώντας το Internet Banking

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

47.Το Internet Banking είναι ασφαλές μέσο για την αποστολή ευαίσθητων πληροφοριών

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

48.Αισθάνομαι απολύτως ασφαλής όταν στέλνω προσωπικες πληροφορίες χρησιμοποιώντας το Internet Banking

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

49.Συνολικά, το Internet Banking παρέχει ασφάλεια στη μεταφορά ευαίσθητων πληροφορίων

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

Επιδεξιότητα χρησης υπολογιστή

Αισθάνομαι ικανός να χρησιμοποιήσω το Internet Banking …50. Εαν έχω μόνο τις οδηγίες χρήσης απο την

ιστιοσελίδα της τράπεζας1 2 3 4 5 6 7

51. Έστω και αν δεν υπάρχει κάποιος για να μου δείξει

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

52. Έστω και αν δεν το έχω χρησιμοποιήσει ποτέ πριν

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

53. Έαν έχω παρακολουθήσει κάποιον να το χρησιμοποιεί πριν απο εμένα

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

Διαφωνώ απόλυτα

Ουδέ-τερο

Συμφωνώ απόλυτα

104

Διευκολυντικοί τεχνολογικοί παράγοντες

54. Λαμβάνοντας υπόψην τις απαιτήσεις για τη σωστή λειτουργία Internet Banking πιστεύω οτι μπορώ να το χρησιμοποιήσω εύκολα

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

55. Γρήγορη σύνδεση στο Internet είναι σημαντική για τη χρήση του Internet Banking

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

56. Αξιόπιστη σύνδεση στο Internet είναι σημαντική για τη χρήση του Internet Banking

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

Αποφυγή Αβεβαιότητας

57. Είναι σημαντικό για εμένα να έχω λεπτομερείς οδηγίες ώστε να ξέρω ακριβώς τι πρέπει να κάνω οταν συναλλάσσομαι με τη τράπεζα

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

58. Είναι σημαντικό για εμένα να ακολουθώ συγκεκριμένες διαδικασίες και οδηγίες όταν συναλλάσσομαι με την τράπεζα

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

59. Θεωρώ πως οι οδηγίες για την διεκπαιρέωση των συναλλαγών μου είναι σημαντικες

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

Πρόθεση για Χρήση του Internet Banking

60. Θα χρησιμοποιούσα το Internet Banking για τις ανάγκες μου

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

61. Η χρήση του Internet Banking για την διεκπαιρέωση των συναλλαγών μου είναι κάτι που θα έκανα

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

62. Θα μπορουσα να φανταστώ τον ευατό μου να χρησιμποιεί το Internet Banking

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

105

Appendix B

Profits attributable to shareholders

Number of

branches ΑΤΜ Employeesprofits/

employeesprofits/branch

Ethniki 1625 579 1418 12964 0,125 2,806Alpha 850 398 7.914 0,107 2,135EFG Eurobank-Ergasias 851 558 10284 0,082 1,525Piraeus 542.4 320 659 6600 0,082 1,695Marfin Egnatia 135,1 160 2.379 0,056 0,843Table: Economic details about Greek banks

Sources: Ethniki: http://www.nbg.gr/wps/wcm/connect/29ee3b8049113e668fe0af17d2631966/Dt_040308.pdf?MOD=AJPERES&CACHEID=29ee3b8049113e668fe0af17d2631966Alpha: http://www.alpha.gr/page/default.asp?la=1&id=57EFG Eurobank Ergasias: http://www.eurobank.gr/online/home/generic.aspx?id=12&mid=342&lang=grPiraeus: http://www.piraeusbank.gr/ecPage.asp?id=240059&lang=1&nt=102&sid=&fid=240188Marfin Egnatia: http://www.marfinbank.gr/MarfinEgnatia/Gr/Docs/EnimerosiEpendyton/OikonomikaStoixeia/OikonomikesKatastaseis.aspx

106

Appendix C

Demographics of the second studyAge

Frequency Percent<18 0 019-30 112 97.431-45 2 1.745-60 1 0.9>60 0 0Total 115 100,0Gender

Frequency PercentMale 58 50.4Female 57 49.6Total 115 100,0Income

Frequency Percent<1000€ 75 65.21000-3000€ 34 29.63000-6000€ 4 3.5>6000€ 1 0.9missing 1Total 115 100,0Occupation

Frequency PercentStudent 42 36.5Private Employee 30 26.1

Civil servant 1 0.9Self Employed 12 10.4Technician 3 2.6Retiree 0 0Other (Please specify 25 21.7

Missing 1Total 115 100,0

107

ReferencesJournal ArticlesAdams, A. D., R. R. Nelson, et al. (1992). "Perceived Usefulness, Ease of Use, and Usage of Information Technology: A Replication." MIS Quarterly 16(2): 227-247.

Agarwal, R. and J. Prasad (1999). "Are individual differences germane to the acceptance of new information technologies." Decision Sciences 30: 361-391.

Alimonos G. et al (May 1998), "Internet Banking", The World of Internet, issue 34.

Bandura, A. (1977). "Self-efficacy: Toward a Unifying Theory of Behavioral Change." Psychological Review 84(2): 191-215.

Bartlett, N. (2008). Online Banking And The Bottom Line. Credit Union Magazine. 74: 30-31.

Brynjolfsson, E. and D. M. Smith (2000). "Frictionless Commerce? A comparison of Internet and Conventional Retailers." Management Science 46(4): 563-585.

Celic, H. (2008). "What determines Turkish customer's acceptance of internet banking?" International Journal of Bank Marketing 26(2): 353-370.

Cheng, T. C. E., Y. C. D. Lam, et al. (2006). "Adoption of internet banking: An empirical study in Hong Kong." Decision Support Systems 42: 1558-1572.

108

Compeau, D. R. and C. A. Higgins (1995a). "Application of Social Cognitive Theory to Training for Computer Skills." Information Systems Research 6(2): 118-143.

Compeau, D. R. and C. A. Higgins (1995b). "Computer Self Efficacy: Development of a Measure and Initial Test." MIS Quarterly 19(2): 189-211.

Daft, R. L. and R. H. Lengel (1984). "Information Richness: a New Approach to Mnagerial Bahavior and Organizational Design." Research in organizational behavior 6: 191-233.

Davis, F. D. (1986). “A technology acceptance model for empirically testing new end-user information systems: Theory and results.” Thesis, Sloan School of Management, Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Davis, F. D. (1989). "Perceived Usefulness, Perceived Ease of Use, and User Acceptance of Information Technology." MIS Quarterly 13: 319-340.

Davis, F. D. (1993). "User Acceptance of Information Technology System Characteristics, User Perceptions and Behavioral Impacts." International Journal of Man-Machine Studies 38(3): 475-487.

Davis, F. D., R. P. Bagozzi, et al. (1989). "User acceptance of computer technology: A comparison of two theoretical models." Management Science 35: 982-1002.

Davis, F. D., R. P. Bagozzi, et al. (1992). "Extrinsic and Intrinsic Motivation to Use Computers in the Workplace." Journal of Applied Social Psychology 22(14): 1111-1132.

109

DeYoung, R. (2005), “The performance of internet-based business model: evidence from the banking industry”, The Journal of Business, Vol. 78 No. 3, pp. 893-974DeYoung, R., Lang, W.W. and Nolle, D.L. (2007), “How the internet affects output and performance at community banks”, Journal of Banking & Finance, Vol. 31, pp. 1033-60. Dishaw, M. T. and D. M. Strong (1999). "Extending the technology acceptance model with task technology fit constructs." Information & Management 36(1): 9-21.

Dorfman, P. and P. Howell (1988). "Dimensions of national culture and effective leadership patterns: Hofstede revisited." Advances in International Comparative Management 3: 127-150.

Furst, K., W. W. Lang, and D. E. Nolle. 2002. Internet banking. Journal of Financial Services Research 22:95–118.

Goh, H. P. (1995). "The diffusion On Internet in Sinagapore."

Ha, I., Y. Yoon, et al. (2007). "Determinants of adoption of mobile games under mobile broadband wireless access environment." Information & Management 44: 276-286.

Hannan, M. A., A. M. Rahman, et al. (2007). "E-Banking: Evolution, Status and Prospects." The Cost and Management 35(1): 36-48.

Heijden, H. (2004). "User Acceptance of Hedonic Information Systems." MIS Quarterly 28(4): 695-704.

Hern_andez-Murillo, R., Llobet, G., Fuentes, R. (2008). “Strategic Online-Banking Adoption” FEDERAL RESERVE BANK OF ST. LOUIS Research Division

110

Hong, W., Y. L. T. James, et al. (2001). "Determinants of User Acceptance of Digital Libraries: An Empirical Examination of Individual Differences and System Characteristics." Journal of Management Information Systems 18(3): 97-124.

Hwang, Y. (2005). "Investigating enterprise systems adoption: uncertainty avoidance, intrinsic motivation, and the technology acceptance model." European Journal of Information Systems 14: 150-161.

Igbaria, M., S. Parasuraman, et al. (1996). "A Motivational Model of Microcomputer Usage." Journal of Management Information Systems 13(1): 127-143.

Jaruwachirathanakul, Β. and D. Fink (2005). "Internet banking adoption strategies for a developing country: the case of Thailand." Internet Research 15(3): 295-311.

Jayawardhena, C. and P. GFoley (2000). "Changes in the banking sector - the case of internet banking in the UK." Internet Research: Electronic Networking Applications and Policy 10(1): 19-30.

Jieun, Y., I. Ha, et al. (2005). "Extending the TAM for a t-commerce." Information & Management 42: 965-976.

Kaiser, F. H. (1974). "An Index Of Factorial Simplicity." Psychometrica 39(1).

Kiang, M. Y., T. S. Raghu, et al. (2000). "Marketing on the Internet - Who can benefit from an online marketing approach?" Decision Support Systems 27(4): 383-93.

111

Kim, S. H. (2008). "Moderating effects of Job relevance and Experience on mobile wireless technology acceptance: Adoption of a smartphone by individuals." Information & Management 45: 387-393.

Landry, J. L. B., R. Griffeth, et al. (2006). "Measuring Student Perceptions of Blackboard Using the Technology Acceptance Model." Decision Sciences journal of Innovative Education 4(1).

Lymperopoulos, C. and E. I. Chaniotakis (2004). "Branch employees' perceptions towards implications of e-banking in Greece." International journal of Retail & Distribution Management 32(6): 302-311.

Mathieson, K. (1991). "Predicting user intentions: comparing the technology acceptance model with the theory of planned behavior." Information Systems Research 2(3): 173-191.

McCoy, S., A. Everard, et al. (2005a). "An Examination of the Technology Acceptance Model in Uruguay and the US: a Focus on Culture " Journal of Global Information Management 8(2).

McCoy, S., F. D. Galletta, et al. (2005b). "Integrating National Culture into IS Research: The Need for Current Individual Level Measures." The communication of the Association for Information Systems 15(12).

McCoy, S., F. D. Galletta, et al. (2007). "Applying TAM across cultures: the need for caution." European Journal of Information Systems 16: 81-90.

Mols, N. (1998). "The behavioral consequences of PC banking." International Journal of Bank Marketing 16(5): 195-201.

112

O'Connel, B. (1996). "Australian Banking on the Internet - Fact or Fiction?" The Australian Banker: 212-14.

Pikkarainen, T., K. Pikkarainen, et al. (2004). "Consumer acceptance of online banking: an extension of the technology acceptance model " Internet Research 14(3): 224-235.

Quelch, J. A. and L. R. Klein (1996). "The Internet and international marketing." Sloan Management Review 37(3): 60-75.

Quintal, V., J. Lee, et al. Attitudes Towards Risk and Uncertainty: Suggested Scales

Salisbury, D. W., A. R. Pearson, et al. (2001). "Perceived security and World Wide Web purchase intention." Industrial Management & Data systems 101(4): 165-176.

Sathye, M. (1999). "Adoption of Internet banking by Australian consumers: an empirical investigation " International Journal of Bank Marketing 17(7): 324-334.

Shih, H. P. (2004). "An empirical study on predicting user acceptance of e-shopping on the Web." Information & Management 41: 351-368.

Sproull, L. and S. Kiesler (1986). "Reducing Social Context Cues: Electronic-Mail in Organizational Communication." Mangement Science 32(11): 1492-1512.

Straub, D., M. Keil, et al. (1997). "Testing the technology acceptance model across cutlures: A three country study." Information & Management 33(1): 1-11.

113

Straub, D., K. Loch, et al. (2002). "Toward a theory-based measurement of culture." Journal of Global Information Management 10(1): 13-23.

Subramanian, G. H. (1994). "A Replication of Perceived Usefulness and Perceived Ease of Use Measurement." Decision Sciences 25(5/6): 863-874.

Suh, B. and I. Han (2002). "Effect of trust on customer acceptance of internet banking." Electronic Commerce Research and Applications 1: 247-263.

Susannah, P. A. D. (2005). "The state of online banking ". from http://www.pewinternet.org/pdfs/PIP_Online_Banking_2005.pdf.

Tan, M. and S. H. T. Teo (2000). "Factors Influencing the Adoption of Internet Banking." Journal of the Association for Information Systems 1(5).

Taylor, S., Todd, P.A., (1995a). "Assessing IT usage: The Role of Prior Experience." MIS Quarterly 19(2): 561-570.

Taylor, S., Todd, P.A., (1995b). "Understanding information technology usage: a test of competing models." Information Systems Research 6(2): 144-176.

Thompson, R. L., C. A. Higgins, et al. (1991). "Personal Computing: Toward a Conceptual Model of Utilization." MIS Quarterly 15(1): 124-143.

Triandis, H. C. (1979). Values, attitudes and interpersonal behaviour. Nebraska Symposium on Motivation, Beliefs, Attitudes and Values.

114

United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, U. (2000). E-Commerce and Development Report. New York & Geneva: United Nations.

Venkatesh, V. (2000). "Determinants of Perceived Ease of Use: Integrating Control, Intrinsic Motivation, and Emotion Into the Technology Acceptance Model." Information Systems Research 11(4): 342-365.

Venkatesh, V. and H. B. (2008). "Technology Acceptance Model 3 and a Research Agenda on Interventions." Decision Sciences 39(2).

Venkatesh, V. and F. D. Davis (2000). "A Theoretical Extension of the Technology Acceptance Model: Four Longitudinal Field Studies." Management Science 46(2): 186-204.

Venkatesh, V., G. M. Morris, et al. (2003). "User Acceptance of Information Technology: Toward a unified view." MIS Quarterly 27: 425-478.

Vijayasarathy, R. L. (2004). "Predicting consumer intentions to use on-line shopping: the case for an augmented technology acceptance model." Information & Management 41: 747-762.

Wang, Y.-S., Y.-M. Wang, et al. (2003). "Determinants of user acceptance of Internet banking: an empirical study." International Journal of service Industry Management 14(5): 501-519.

Yoo, B. and N. Donthu (2002). "The effects of marketing education and individual cultural values on marketing ethics of students " Journal of Marketing Education 24(2): 92-103.

115

Younghwa, L., A. K. Kenneth, et al. (2003). "The Technology Acceptance Model: Past, Present, and Future." Communications of the Association for Information Systems 12(50): 752-780.

BooksBenton, E. G., Ed. (2002). The Future of Banking, Quorum Books.

Cronin, J. M. (1997). Banking and finance on the internet.

Downes, L. and C. Mui (1998). Unleashing the Killer App: Digital Strategies for Market Dominance, Harvard Business School Press; Rev Sub edition (March 2000).

Fishbein, M. and I. Ajzen (1975). Belief, Attitude, Intention, and Behavior: an introduction to theory of research, Addison-Wesley.

Hofstede, G. (1980). Cultures Consequences : International Differences in Work-Related Values, Sage Publications, Inc;

Hofstede, G., Ed. (1984). Cultures Consequences : International Differences in Work-Related Values, Sage Publications, Inc;.

Nixon, B. and M. Nixon (2000). Sams Teach Yourself e-Banking Today, Sams Publishing.

Short, J., E. Williams, et al. (1976). The Social Psychology of Telecommunication, John Wiley and Sons Ltd.

Internethttp://www.ebusinesswatch.org/key_reports/synthesis_reports.htmhttp://www.dbresearch.com/PROD/DBR_INTERNET_DE-PROD/PROD0000000000196129.pdf

116

http://www.internetworldstats.comhttp://epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/pls/portal/docs/PAGE/PGP_PRD_CAT_PREREL/PGE_CAT_PREREL_YEAR_2008/PGE_CAT_PREREL_YEAR_2008_MONTH_02/4-08022008-EN-AP.PDFwww.nbg.grhttp://www.alpha.grwww.eurobank.grhttp://www.piraeusbank.grwww.winbank.grhttp://www.marfinegnatiabank.grhttp://www.piraeusbank.gr/Images/genikikatataksi1.gifhttp://ais.affiniscape.com/displaycommon.cfm?an=1&subarticlenbr=432http://home.aisnet.org/index.cfmhttp://www.geert-hofstede.com/http://www.clearlycultural.com/geert-hofstede-cultural-dimensions/http://epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/cache/ITY_OFFPUB/KS-CD-06-001/EN/KS-CD-06-001-EN.PDFhttp://www.geert-hofstede.com/hofstede_dimensions.phphttp://www.thesistools.com/Susannah, P. A. D. (2005). "The state of online banking ". from http://www.pewinternet.org/pdfs/PIP_Online_Banking_2005.pdf.Ethniki Annual Report: http://www.nbg.gr/wps/wcm/connect/29ee3b8049113e668fe0af17d2631966/Dt_040308.pdf?MOD=AJPERES&CACHEID=29ee3b8049113e668fe0af17d2631966Alpha Annual Report: http://www.alpha.gr/page/default.asp?la=1&id=57

117

EFG Eurobank Ergasias Annual Report: http://www.eurobank.gr/online/home/generic.aspx?id=12&mid=342&lang=grPiraeus Annual Report: http://www.piraeusbank.gr/ecPage.asp?id=240059&lang=1&nt=102&sid=&fid=240188Marfin Egnatia Annual Report: http://www.marfinbank.gr/MarfinEgnatia/Gr/Docs/EnimerosiEpendyton/OikonomikaStoixeia/OikonomikesKatastaseis.aspx

118